


Fighter

by Areumdawonhho



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: F/M, Time Travel AU, aka Hoseok getting his ass kicked at kendo, based on dramarama mv, but like expanded on a heap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-04-28 04:32:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 60,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14441466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areumdawonhho/pseuds/Areumdawonhho
Summary: Thirty years is a long time.A third of someone’s life passes in thirty years, technology advances more than they could have imagined, people are lost to them, and others are met. So much can happen in thirty years.But for Hoseok, three decades pass in a second. He has time in his hands, and an infinite amount of possibilities - but he always chooses one.Why? Because of her.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

>  Originally posted on MBBA but with encouragement is going up on here, too. Enjoy!

_It’s the year 2047._

_Technology has advanced so far that holograms and talking computers have become an unquestionable part of everyday life. Sounds exciting, right?_

_Not for Hoseok._

_Ever since an entity known as the Federation came to power in 2031, things have been less than desirable. Life became less about the individual and more about civilisation as a whole. Choice was removed from the job market as it didn’t matter what you wanted to do – but what society needed you to do. Needless to say – life was pretty boring for everyone, especially when the Federation controlled practically everything._

_But one day, someone did the impossible._

_A mysterious man, known only as C.H.W. got past the Federation and shocked the whole nation with a single watch._

_And that’s when the fun began._

* * *

 

**September 22 nd, 2047**

“Come on you stupid-”

Hoseok flinched as he finally managed to release the spring from its spot, and it went flying past his head. He heard it bounce somewhere behind him but didn’t bother getting up to find it. It would be lost forever now.

He was hunched over his workbench, looking between a half pulled apart piece of metal, and the wall in front of him. It wasn’t any wall though, it was one covered by a holographic screen, with feint blue gridlines running the length of it. It was usually used for showing blue prints or designs, but right now was resembling the pages of a textbook.

The workshop didn’t have any windows for security reasons, meaning that even if it stormed, Hoseok would have no clue what was going on outside. The sun had most likely gone down already, but he couldn’t quite be sure. He could always check the time, but he was worried he wouldn’t like how late it had gotten.

Just as he flicked the holographic page over, a message appeared on the screen, notifying him that his phone was ringing. Said phone was currently in his locker outside the staff room, but thanks to modern technology he could answer it here. Seeing who was calling, he smiled.

“Hey Minhyuk,” he said, seeing the man’s face pop up on the hologram in front of him.

“Hey!” his friend beamed, “Are you still at work?” he asked then, noticing Hoseok’s surroundings. “You’re allowed to be on the phone?”

“I am when my boss ditches five hours early like always,” he answered with a dry tone. He was only the apprentice, meaning it was very hard to learn things when the man with all the knowledge never did any work. It also meant that Hoseok had needed to learn a lot of things very fast so that the work still got done.

He shook his head, before looking back up to Minhyuk, “How’s your day been?” he asked.

The hologram sighed, “Boring,” he said, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. “You’ve heard me complain about archives before.”

“Ah, another day at the security bureau,” Hoseok laughed. “Who knew they’d still need a document bitch even when there’s no paper.”

Minhyuk was about to reply, but their call was interrupted by the announcement that played through every speaker and all devices each day of the week.

_"Time warp is not allowed. Do not take any watches from C.H.W.”_

The words had appeared on the screen in front of Minhyuk’s face, and when it finished, Hoseok rolled his eyes.

“You’d think someone wouldn’t have gotten the message by now,” Minhyuk commented then.

Hoseok began fiddling with his screwdriver, “Yeah, I don’t know why the feds are still trying to chase this guy. He’s obviously leagues ahead of everybody else, and probably long gone, too. All the watches are recovered now anyway, aren’t they?”

“I think so,” Minhyuk replied, thinking for a moment. “At least that’s what I heard. They’re probably just trying to stop more from magically appearing. I mean, he managed to get them released the first time. Nobody’s ever gotten past the feds before.”

“How did he even manage to get something to market without the federation’s approval though?”

“I dunno,” Minhyuk said, scratching his head. “I’ve heard a lot of rumours, but there’s nothing consistent.” He then noticed Hoseok fiddling with his tools. “What are you working on?” he suddenly asked.

Hoseok looked down at his hands, that were now holding the piece of metal he’d been pulling apart. “Oh, I was just pulling apart this device – it’s like a holographic simulator that communicates with an A.I.- and I realised it’s probably built similarly to Siri.”

Minhyuk shook his head, “You’re still hellbent on reprogramming her?”

“Only the annoying parts.”

That made Minhyuk laugh, “So all her logic, essentially, meaning she’ll be useless. Not to mention that’s kind of illegal.”

Hoseok pointed his screwdriver at the hologram, “Hey, if the feds are gonna make me buy something I can’t afford just so they have a way to spy on me, I’m going to do what I want with it.” He went back to his little piece of metal. “Besides,” he then added as an afterthought, “What could someone like me possibly do to grab the interest of the Federation?” 

* * *

**September 22 nd, 2017**

“Alright, time to lay down some house rules,” Mei said, walking into the living room to see Hyunwoo already sprawled out on the couch. They’d barely gotten into this apartment yet and he was ready to take a nap. Figures.

“Isn’t it called common sense?” He said, eyes closed as he rested his hands behind his head. “Besides, I’m doing you a favour by living here,” he joked.

Mei had needed to be closer to her Uni campus but hadn’t been able to afford to live on her own, which was where Hyunwoo was needed. He’d wanted to move out of his parent’s place, anyway.

“Ooh, I remember this from my college days,” a voice said from behind the stack of boxes he was carrying. Mei’s father put them down with a grin, “If there’s a tie on the door, it means they’ve got company.”

He was met with a raised eyebrow from Hyunwoo and a blank stare from Mei. “Thanks Dad,” she said dryly. “I’m sure that’ll be so useful for us.”

“Hey, you never know, Nu might meet some spunky young thing next semester,” Taehyun threw back.

Hyunwoo looked concerned, “Spunky?”

“Alright, I think that’s enough help from you,” Mei said, before pushing against his shoulder to make him leave. He was laughing as he obliged, heading for the door.

“Alright, alright, I’ll leave you guys to it. Enjoy the freedom while it lasts, I know I will,” he grinned.

“Love you too!” Mei said back, before he left with a chuckle.

When he was gone, Hyunwoo sat up. “I love your Dad.”

“I love him too,” Mei said, “But sometimes his age really shows. I mean, spunky?”

Hyunwoo was chuckling, “The tie idea was a good one though. I mean, if either of us actually manage to have a love life.”

“Ha,” Mei laughed, “I doubt that’s gonna happen anytime soon. You know how my last date went.”

He was instantly laughing, “I can’t believe he actually-”

“I told you we’re not going to mention that!” she hit him with one of the couch pillows. “How about how all the girls you meet seem to think I’m in love with you?” She shuddered for good measure.

“Ouch,” he responded with a chuckle. “I’m not that ugly.”

“I thought you were my cousin for the first five years of my life!” she argued. For good reason, too. Taehyun always referred to Hyunwoo’s mother as Aunty, and they spent so much time at each other’s houses. Turns out they were just really good friends. Either way, Hyunwoo was like a brother to her.

“Let’s just agree that we’ll have to get better at the dating thing,” Hyunwoo conceded. He held out a hand, “Deal?”

Mei laughed, reaching out to shake his hand, “Deal.”


	2. The Watch

_"Time warp is not allowed. Do not take any watches from C.H.W.”_

Hoseok wanted to groan. This announcement played through every speaker, tv, radio, and personal device every day of the week. He couldn’t even listen to music without hearing it coming through his headphones. It was like a never ending drone following you wherever you went.

The watches had been a huge hit when they first appeared. Limited as they were, those that had them were envied and those who didn’t made sure they knew about it. To the dismay of a lot of people though, they’d been banned almost as soon as they were released. Hoseok, like most people, hadn’t even seen one - the Federation were fast to stomp out anything they didn’t like, and these watches had been a riot.

As he stepped off the subway, he was met with a holographic sign. CHW was the first thing that jumped out from it - named after the man who had invented the devices, who had mysteriously disappeared as soon as the Federation banned them. No surprises there.

The sign looked like every other that was in the city – urging those who had information on this man to contact the Federation. But if he hadn’t been found by now, it was bound to be useless. He invented the damn things, no doubt he was using them to evade the feds.

The walk back to his apartment was boring as usual. There were people everywhere, buildings towering into the sky, loud traffic, and shouts from the cars. The air smelt like all kinds of fumes, but there wasn’t anywhere one could go to avoid it. It was a constant thing, and the residents had taken to wearing masks everywhere now. He couldn’t see a single person without one. He could remember not needing to wear one when he was younger, but in the last decade you’d be an idiot not to.

When he finally reached his home - a small studio apartment on the third floor of what used to be a warehouse - he opened the door to see the familiar flash of blue pop up on the coffee table.

It was like a glowing ball of light, and sometimes it annoyed the crap out of him.

 _“Welcome home, Hoseok!”_ said the A.I. _“Eventful day at work?”_

“Hi Siri,” he said, throwing his bag down onto the bed. “And no, like always. Every piece of junk looks the same.”

 _“At least you’re good at what you do,”_ Siri replied, lighting up at him. _“Soon enough you’ll have your own workshop.”_

He let out a dry laugh, dropping back down onto the bed, “I highly doubt that,” he said. “Mr douchebag still takes the credit for my work.” He scowled as he stretched his legs out on the bed but stopped as soon as he kicked something.

Sitting up, he noticed there was a lump under the covers. He scrunched up his face.

“Siri…did anyone enter my apartment while I was gone?” he asked as he reached under the sheets and pulled out a box.

 _“Not that I recall,”_ she replied.

The box wasn’t labelled. It wasn’t very heavy either, and didn’t look like it could fit much. There was definitely something inside it, though.

He was stumped. “Then how the heck did this get here?” He asked incredulously, “Aren’t you in charge of security?”

Siri changed colours a few times, a sign that she was ‘thinking’. _“I do not recall,”_ she replied finally. _“There is a chance I could have a gap in my internal memory.”_

He sighed. Of course. This is what happens when you have the cheapest model because these things were compulsory, and you could barely afford rent.

 _“Perhaps your tinkering had some negative effects on my memory unit,”_ Siri suggested. _“I would advise fixing that.”_

Hoseok was still staring at the box, but he turned to look at the blue ball of light for a moment. “I didn’t touch your memory,” he argued.

 _“Well perhaps you should undo the changes you did make,”_ the A.I. suggested again. _“In case it has affected any of my usual functions.”_

“Sure, I’ll get right on that,” he muttered, while his mind was focused on deciding whether to open the box or not. If Siri didn’t know how it got here, it could be dangerous.

Siri then turned yellow, _“I’m detecting certain levels of sarcasm there.”_

“You’re detecting right,” Hoseok replied. He then held the box out towards the A.I. “What do you think it is?” he asked.

Siri deliberated for a moment. _“I do not have enough information on this box to make an assumption. There are an infinite amount of possibilities.”_

Hoseok sighed, “Damn Schrodinger and his cat.”

 _“That is not what Schrodinger’s experiment was about,”_ Siri helpfully pointed out.

Hoseok ignored her, and looked at the box again. Well, better find out what this thing was, before considering enhancing his security. He opened the box cautiously, and underneath layers of bubble wrap, there was…

“A watch?” he asked, pulling it out. It looked different to the watches that were in fashion, that were holographic and brightly coloured, and even the older watches weren’t quite like this. That’s when he saw the date on it, and it finally clicked.

His eyes went wide. “It’s one of the-”

 _“That’s a banned item!”_ Siri announced, having seen the watch in his hand and instantly lighting up red.

“Shh, Siri, keep it down!” he said. “Of course I know what this is. How the hell did it get here?”

 _“You must hand it into the Federation at once,”_ Siri told him.

“Yeah, I suppose I should, hey.” He stood up, inspecting the watch in his hand. “Wow.”

He turned it over a few times, looking at the controls and wondering how something this small could make a whole person jump through time. “I never actually got to see one of these. It looks so complex. How many of these were originally released?”

 _“Fifty, I believe,”_ Siri responded. _“Though I cannot detect a stamping on that one so perhaps it was not one of the original fifty. My data shows that they were all recovered.”_

Hoseok was turning the watch over in his hands. Not many people got to use these things before they were banned, and now he had one right in his hands. “I have to try it,” he said.

Siri lit up red again, _“That is not advisable,”_ she said.

“I know, I know, but how can I not?” he argued. “This was given to me somehow, I have to try it at least once.”

_“You are aware that time warping is against the law, Hoseok.”_

“Yes, I am aware of that,” he replied. “Just one try. Then I’ll hand it in.”

Siri was orange now. _“You do not fill me with confidence.”_

“And neither do you when your memory fails to the point that you don’t know where it came from.” He said with a grin. “It will only take a second.” Literally.

_“Please take note of the time.”_

He was filled with excitement at the idea of finally trying one of these out. He glanced at the holo-clock on the wall, before blindly picking a random year, and hitting the button.

.

It felt like he had been dumped in a washing machine and shaken about. By the time he was spat out somewhere, hitting the ground with a hard thud, he was so disoriented he needed to close his eyes. He didn’t know where he was, except that there was grass beneath his back.

When his head had settled enough, he opened his eyes, and saw a clear blue sky. His eyes were wide as he slowly sat up. “Whoa…” It was so…. clear. It was such a beautiful blue, he couldn’t help but stare. It was nothing like the sky back home, always a dull grey, and covered with dark clouds. There had always been talk of what their advances had done to the environment, but seeing it was something else. Sure, he’d seen pictures of what the world used to look like but…this was amazing.

He took a moment to take a deep breath, enjoying the smell of freshly clipped grass instead of fumes for once. He stood up, looking around himself. He appeared to be in the middle of a park. The grass was so green, the air was so fresh, and the atmosphere was so peaceful. He looked down at the watch in his hand, taking note of the date. 2017. This was only thirty years ago.

His parents would have been alive in this time. They would have grown up experiencing this every day.

He looked up again and kept staring at the sky. He just couldn’t comprehend this.

**.**

“God damn it, don’t tell me I forgot to buy milk…”

Mei was shuffling through her shopping bags as she cut through the park. She was always in a rush to get there after work before the Ezi-Mart closed, and she always forgot something. She ought to start writing lists. “Oh, who am I kidding,” she muttered, “I’ll never be that organised.”

She knew that she wasn’t watching where she was going, but she expected that should anybody else be coming down the path that they’d see her and easily step to the side. What she didn’t expect, was to run into an idiot staring at the sky.

She’d noticed him only a millisecond before they collided, and she let out a surprised noise as they ran into each other, dropping her shopping bags as the contents all rolled out onto the concrete.

The stranger had looked at her with wide eyes, “I am so sorry!” he suddenly said, kneeling to try and retrieve her scattered groceries. “I-I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

She sank to the concrete as well, gathering the items back into their bags. “I suppose I wasn’t either,” she admitted. “No harm done.”

When they’d collected everything, they stood up again, and the man went to hand her the last item. Oh, look at that, it was the milk. So, she didn’t forget it after all. Figures.

“Sorry again,” he said. “I was, uh, a little distracted by-”

“Were you staring at the sky?” she suddenly asked.

He paused, his mouth still open mid-sentence. He didn’t know what to say to that, so he turned it back on her. “Were you muttering to yourself?”

She let out a short laugh, “Touché.” She put the milk back in one of her bags. “Well, thanks for the help,” she said, stepping past him. “And if you really want to look at the sky, try the northern lookout. I hear that’s pretty fantastic at sunset.”

She’d been giving him an amused look, before she walked away, and finally disappeared behind the trees. He looked up at the sky again, before back towards where she’d gone.

A smile appeared on his face, before he began to walk down the path in the opposite direction. He just had to explore this place, now.

And because of the time warping watch, he had all the time in the world.

**.**

Mei had just reached the door to her apartment when her phone began to ring. She balanced it between her ear and shoulder as she fished her keys out of her pocket.

“Hey Dad,” she answered, fighting with the lock to try and get it open. “What’s up?”

“The sky is what’s up,” he replied in true dad fashion – reminding her of the idiot she’d ran into at the park – “and Kendo is what’s down.”

She finally forced the door open, stumbling into her apartment with all her shopping bags. “Please speak a language I understand, this isn’t the 90’s.”

He chuckled on the other end as she dumped the bags on her kitchen bench. “Sorry sweetheart, I’m just excited because we got a bunch of new sign ups today.”

“Oh, really?” her voice peaked in interest. “Enough for three classes?”

“Hmm, not quite, but almost. Speaking of, will you be dropping by the dojo this evening?”

Mei jumped up to sit on the bench, “No actually, I’ve got an assignment due tomorrow.”

He made a knowing sound through the phone, “And how much of it have you done?” 

“At least seventy percent of it,” she threw back at him. “And don’t make that noise at me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Alright pumpkin,” he conceded. “I’ll let you get to it, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As she said goodbye and hung up, she couldn’t help but feel the happy buzz that he’d had over the phone. Sign-ups, and almost enough for three whole classes! It was such a relief that the dojo was finally going forwards again.

The Kendo club had been owned by their family for years. Her grandfather had passed it down onto her Dad, and he’d been running it for a little over thirty years, now. Not even becoming a single parent had stopped the dojo from running, but for the last few years, interest in their dojo had dropped dramatically. Developers were suddenly at them pressuring them to sell.

But they couldn’t. Not even the huge martial arts studio a few blocks away was going to make them. This was a family run business and it was going to stay standing whether they had thirty members or three members.

That was for sure.

**.**

“Siri, you should have seen it, it was amazing!”

Hoseok was pacing back and forth in his apartment, the time warping watch grasped tight in his hand. “Everything was so clean and fresh and bright, and the people were so nice.”

He’d wanted to stay for days, but as he’d found out, the watch had a time limit. After a certain number of hours, it timed out, and warped him back home. Not before he’d taken note of the date, though.

 _“Yes, things were quite different back then,”_ Siri agreed. _“Now I do advise that you-”_

Hoseok turned, waving his hands around, “Wait, wait, wait. I didn’t tell you the best part.”

 _“I was not invented for friendly conversation,”_ Siri interrupted. _“I would advise on making some real friends, Hoseok.”_

That remark surprised him, “I have friends,” he defended.

 _“You have_ a _friend,”_ Siri corrected. _“And I suggest you talk to him about this if you do not intend to return the watch.”_

“I will return it,” he said. “And I can’t tell Minhyuk about this, he’ll be through the roof, now shut up for a second.”

Siri stayed silent.

“I found a dojo,” he said with a grin, “For Kendo!”

Siri had to search her dictionary for a word that would be acceptable as a response. _“…Fascinating.”_

“I know right?!” Hoseok was over the moon, “And the instructor there was awesome, he offered to teach me for free. Can you imagine? Dad’s legacy, and I can learn it for free!” he gestured to all the equipment scattered around his apartment. It all belonged to his father – Lee Baekhyun, world Kendo Champion of 2022. The trophy was sitting on top of his bookshelf.

 _“You can learn Kendo here,”_ Siri pointed out, showing him a holo screen of the details.

He waved a hand at it, “But that’s holograms and virtual reality. This is real Kendo with genuine people,” he stressed. “I can’t turn an opportunity like this down.”

Siri closed the screen. _“So, you won’t be returning the watch, then.”_

“I will return it,” Hoseok said again, “But, only once I’m finished with it.”


	3. The Dojo

Mei stared at her best friend with an odd expression on her face. “You took on a student for free?” she asked.

Hyunwoo was packing up the equipment from the class that had just finished, with a grin on his face. “Maybe.”

“Does my Dad know about this?” she asked.

He threw a bokken at her, and she caught the wooden sword easily. “Actually, he does. And he’s fine with it. The guy’s quite passionate about it, so I really don’t mind. He’s going to come every day we have a class.”

“Right,” she walked over to the wall to put the bokken back in it’s place. “Well, if you’re both happy then that’s fine with me,” she said.  “Who is this guy anyway?”

Hyunwoo picked up a Shinai, examining the bamboo, “If you hang around, you’ll find out. He should be here soon.”

True to those words, just after they’d cleaned up the hall, a man walked in. Hyunwoo looked up, “Ah there he is.”

A voice called out in response, “Hey Hyunwoo!”

Mei turned around curiously, and then met the face of the idiot who had been staring at the sky. “Oh, it’s you,” she found herself saying.

He’d stopped in surprise. “Hi,” he said, waving somewhat awkwardly.

Hyunwoo stepped forward, looking between them, “You two know each other?”

“Well, no,” Mei said, looking back at him. “We just ran into each other last week.”

“Literally,” the man chuckled. She cracked a smile.

“Oh, well, Mei this is-”

“Wonho,” the man interrupted, extending his hand out to her. “Shin Wonho.”

“Park Mei,” she responded politely, shaking his hand. “My dad owns this place.”

“Oh wow, really?” he said, glancing around for a second, before his gaze landed on her again. “I guess I’ll be seeing a lot more of you, then.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yes, I suppose you will.”

…

“So…?”

Mei looked up from sweeping the floor to see Hyunwoo looking at her expectantly. He was sweaty as he always was after training, but today he’d just been showing the new guy all the basics. She still couldn’t believe he was the idiot she’d run into at the park last week.

“So, what?” she asked.

He rolled his head around on his shoulders, as if he hadn’t felt like he needed to explain. “So, what do you think of him?”

She creased her eyebrows, “Of Wonho?”

Hyunwoo nodded. Mei paused, and leant her arm against the top of the broomstick. “Well…his movements were a bit awkward from what I saw, but I suppose every beginner is like that.”

“He’s got determination,” Hyunwoo pointed out.

“He does,” Mei agreed. “Why did he suddenly want to start Kendo now?”

Hyunwoo shrugged, “Beats me, I never asked.”

Mei shook her head and went back to sweeping. “Oh well, at least he’s fit.”

Hyunwoo was silent for a second. “What was that?” he asked.

Mei didn’t look up but kept sweeping. “I said at least he’s fit. It’ll make it easier for him to train.”

He raised an eyebrow, “And you were paying attention to this, were you?”

She stopped and looked over at him with confusion written all over her face. “What are you getting at?”

He shrugged, a grin on his face. “Nothing.”

“That’s not nothing you douchebag, I know what you’re doing. Now rack off,” she said playfully, swinging the broom towards him. He grinned and scooted out of her reach. “And go shower already, you stink.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” He gave her a salute, making her laugh as he walked off to the locker room. Mei watched him go with a contemplative look, before muttering to herself as she began to sweep again. “If he tries to play matchmaker I swear to god…”

…

“What’s that sword called again?”

Hoseok had just walked into the training room to see Hyunwoo going through a series of movements with the wooden practice sword. He looked very graceful while doing so.

“This,” he said, suddenly throwing it to him. “Is called a Bokken. You remember me mentioning the Kata?”

Thankfully Hoseok didn’t fumble with the sword, and had caught it steadily in his hand. He looked down at it, feeling the weight before holding onto the handle as he guessed he was supposed to. “That’s the technique patterns, right? What you were just doing?”

“Sure is,” Hyunwoo replied. “There are ten Nihon Kendo Kata, and all of them are performed with two people. The teacher attacks, the student defends. It includes fundamental techniques used in both attacking and counterattacking so has a lot of practical application in Kendo. Also, because it’s a teaching method, you’ll get to be the winner for once,” he joked.

Hoseok found himself smiling as he tossed the sword between his hands, “Very funny.”

Mei had snuck into the training room at about that moment because she needed to get to the storage room, and eavesdropped on Hyunwoo’s explanations while she did so. 

“The teacher is referred to as the Uchidachi, and the student as Shidachi.”

“Man, I’ll be fluent in Japanese by the time I finish this,” Wonho commented.

She’d managed to pick her way around the edge towards the storage room without being noticed, but she just couldn’t just let that comment go. “There is no end, Wonho.”

He spun around then, and when he noticed her, he grinned. “And why’s that?”

“Because for someone who started practicing Kendo under the age of thirteen, they can’t reach eighth dan until they’re at least 46,” she explained.

“And what dan am I?”

Hyunwoo found himself chuckling, “You’re not a dan yet buddy, you’re a Kyu. Rokkyu to be exact – the sixth grade below 1st dan.”

Hoseok remembered seeing grades mentioned in the newspaper from when his father won the championship, but he couldn’t remember what dan he’d been.

“Wonderful. Six grades and then another eight. Is eighth dan the highest grade ever?”

“Technically no, but it’s the highest you can achieve now. Ninth and Tenth are no longer awarded,” Mei explained, leaning against the wall behind her.

Hyunwoo folded his arms, “Did you just come to highjack my teaching session?”

Mei grinned, “No, but I’m considering it.”

The gaze that fell on her was the best attempt at an annoyed look that Hyunwoo could manage, which wasn’t very. She often compared him to a teddy bear. “Either join in, or get out,” he said finally, “Interruptions are highly frowned upon.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, “You’re highly frowned upon,” she threw back, before turning to head towards the storage room again.

He pulled a face at her, but she didn’t see it. Hoseok found himself chuckling.

“How long have you two known each other?” he asked.

"Too long,” Hyunwoo joked, lifting his bokken again. “Let’s see if you remember the first move still after all of that…”

…

“It’s alright everyone, don’t panic,” Mei said, out of breath as she walked into the dojo, leaning against the front desk. “I’m here.”

Her father looked up from his paperwork, his glasses on the end of his nose. “You missed class.”

“I also missed my bus,” she grumbled, trudging around the desk to dump her bag in the office. “My stupid boss made me sort out a mess that wasn’t even mine.”

Taehyun turned around and folded his arms, “Honey, put your bag in a locker like everyone else, I don’t want your gear stinking up the office.”

“But it doesn’t stink yet,” she responded in complaint.

He rolled his eyes in good humour, turning back to his paperwork, “Do you even have time to train today? I thought you had more uni work to do.”

She reappeared and pulled up a chair beside the desk, “I probably won’t train actually, I have a bunch of phone calls to make. The little Kyu Kendoka’s need their new uniforms before the next grading.”

He had a surprised look on his face then. “Oh my, I forgot about that,” he admitted.

Mei grinned, “See? What would you do without me?”

He nodded, pushing his glasses back up as he continued sorting through the paperwork, “Probably drown in misery.”

She was laughing as Wonho walked out from the locker room, his hair damp and bag in hand.

When she spotted him, she looked up. “Still alive?” she asked, as he walked towards the desk.

“Only just,” he chuckled, “Hyunwoo is a brutal instructor.”

“You’re telling me,” she said, glancing back towards the training room.

Wonho creased his eyebrows, “I thought you two were the same grade?”

“We are,” she clarified. As they’d started training together they had always graded at the same time, having now both reached 4th dan. “But he always leads training, no matter who it’s with.”

Hoseok made a sound of understanding as he nodded his head. He’d been coming to train with Hyunwoo for a few weeks now, and was starting to learn more about the family that ran the dojo. He knew that Mei and Hyunwoo had grown up together thanks to their parents being close, so they’d always been good friends, and the dojo had been in Mei’s family for generations. Taehyun had been the one running the classes until Hyunwoo offered to take over a few years ago, and now the three of them were constantly there.

Even though Hoseok hadn’t been coming to this little dojo for long, he was already loving it. The atmosphere was so much different here than back home, and it was so warm and welcoming.

He didn’t want to leave just yet, but because he’d come early today, his time was almost up. He readjusted his bag, before looking up again. “Well, see you Thursday,” he said, waving goodbye as he began to walk out.

Mei smiled warmly and waved back, as Tae gave a smile and a nod. As soon as the man was out of sight, Tae gave his daughter a sidewards glance.

“You think he’s cute, don’t you?”

She all but slammed her hands down onto the desk, “Dad!”

He was grinning as he sorted forms into folders, “I know you Pumpkin, you gave him The Look.”

She should have been used to his antics by now, but her face still turned a glorious shade of red. “That doesn’t mean you have to point it out,” she said, her voice several octaves higher than usual. “Shouldn’t you be – I dunno – all ‘stay away from my daughter’ and all that?”

She didn’t have the best track record with guys. Being his only child, Tae had been a little protective of her during her school days and had given a few boys some terrible glares. But back then, she was a timid little thing who had been naïve about their intentions, and Tae had knowingly stepped in where needed.

Now though, she was a woman. She was wiser, smarter, more confident than her teenage years. Even so, despite all the ‘cute boys’ she had encountered, none of them had been of any interest to her. Not to say that this one was, she didn’t know him well enough yet. But he was cute.

“Nah,” Tae said in response, “Hyunwoo is a good judge of character, so if he likes him then the guy can’t be that bad. Besides, I know you can whoop his ass if need be.”

Mei found herself laughing at that. “True, but that’s not, I mean, we’re not…” she did a gesture between herself and the man who’d just walked out the door. “That’s not gonna happen, Nu just put the idea in my head is all. It’ll be gone in a week,” she assured him.

Tae watched her for a few seconds, before nodding with a chuckle, “Alright honey.”

…

“I’ve got to say, you’re a good learner,” Hyunwoo commented as they walked out of the locker room, having finished their training for the day.

Hoseok smiled at the compliment, “Thanks, though I’m not always told that.” He spotted Mei at the front desk then, shuffling around with papers and folders. She hadn’t been here when he arrived earlier.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you missed class again,” he said as they walked over.

“Not my fault,” she threw back without hesitation.

Hyunwoo put his bag down and leant against the desk, “Does that café ever stick to the shifts they roster you on?”

“That depends,” Mei said, shuffling through receipts, “If everyone actually shows up to their shifts when they’re supposed to, I can leave when I’m supposed to.”

Hoseok couldn’t help but chuckle. He was aware that he was growing much too comfortable in the company of these two, but he thought it couldn’t do much harm. All he was doing was learning Kendo, after all. If he made a couple casual friends along the way, that couldn’t be so bad.

One thing he’d noticed though in the last few weeks, was just how busy Mei was. She wasn’t just working and co-running the dojo, she was a full-time uni student, as well. When she wasn’t running around the café or sitting in classes, she was either working here or at home studying. Not to mention she also managed to fit in training amongst all this. It must have been pretty full on, but he did admire her hard work.

“What about you, Wonho?” Mei suddenly asked, “What do you do for a living?”

He was caught off guard, and had to think quickly as he wasn’t sure his job existed here. “Uh, oh I’m just an apprentice working with mechanics,” he answered. Technically, it was true - the vaguer, the better. No need to mention that it involved holograms and new kinds of engineering that hadn’t been invented yet. 

“Oh, cool,” she actually sounded quite interested, which made him nervous. He didn’t want to dig himself a hole trying to cover up things she wasn’t supposed to know.

 _Yeah I work with holograms because I’m actually a time traveller who hasn’t even been born yet._ Didn’t sound so great.

He was saved from any more questions she may have had when her phone began to ring. Mei fished it out of her pocket and instantly scowled. “Oh great, it’s my boss.” She stood up, knowing it would probably take a while, and waved over her shoulder as she walked into the office, “See you next week, Wonho!”

He lifted a hand to wave back, but she couldn’t have seen because she had her back to him as she answered the call. He would never say it aloud for fear of insulting her, but that scowl had been kind of cute.

Kind of really cute.


	4. Their Deal

“No, we ordered five uniforms. You only sent us three,” Mei stressed through the phone, looking at the open box with distaste. Hoseok had just walked into the dojo to see her almost pulling her hair out. As soon as she noticed him, she waved a hand at him, signalling for him to not run away.

He smiled and dropped his bag by the desk, before pulling up a chair as the phone call continued.

“What do mean am I sure? I have the confirmation in front of me!” She argued. “Well if you only had three available why did you confirm you were sending five?”

She was not happy. Hoseok watched her tap her fingers on the desk as if she would break something otherwise. Her jaw was locked tight and her lips were set in a thin line.

“Oh, another order came in? Of course, I didn’t realise there was a hierarchy. Forget about it, I’ll order elsewhere.” She hung up without saying another word, tossing the phone onto the desk with a huff.

Hoseok stayed silent, giving her a moment to calm down. She shook her head, “Sorry.”

“You alright?” he asked.

She sighed, and nodded, standing up from her chair. “Yeah, just frustrated. They gave our uniforms to the martial arts centre around the corner no doubt. It’s alright, I’ll find another place to get them from.”

He nodded, “Is Hyunwoo around?” he asked.

She looked back at him, “Oh, that’s why I waved you over actually. He got called into work early, so he can’t train you tonight,” she said, sounding apologetic.

Wonho looked disappointed, “Oh…”

“But,” she reached through the door of the office, procuring her bag of gear, “I could spar you if you want?”

She watched as the smile returned to his face. “Yeah, alright.”

After they’d both changed into their uniforms, Mei was walking over to the equipment when she decided to ask him something.

“So, what made you want to learn Kendo?”

Hoseok stopped.

 

He certainly couldn’t give her the real answer to that question. “Uh, it’s just something I’ve always been interested in, I just never got around to doing it.”

She seemed satisfied with that answer, nodding as she tied her uniform behind her effortlessly. Hoseok noted how her movements were so smooth and fast – after doing this for so many years it was like second nature; Hyunwoo was the same.

“Nu said you were pretty passionate about it,” she commented then. “I’ve never been so good at finding a goal and sticking to it – that kind of discipline is admirable,” she added with a smile.

Hoseok thought of all of the years he had spent looking at his father’s trophy. _Discipline,_ he thought to himself. _You could call it that._

He then realised what Mei had referred to Hyunwoo as. “Nu?”

She turned to him in confusion, before realising what she’d said and chuckling to herself. “An old nickname. When we were little I had trouble pronouncing his name properly – I called him Hunoo, and it got shortened to Nu and it kind of stuck.”

“That’s cute,” Hoseok found himself saying.

Mei smiled, “Don’t tell him I told you that.”

Because Mei hadn’t really been watching Wonho’s training sessions with Hyunwoo, she wasn’t sure how much he’d learnt, so decided to just start by sparring and from that she could gauge how he was going.

Even though she wasn’t trying very hard, it took a total of ten seconds before Wonho was on his ass.

He groaned as he sat up, “You do realise I’m a beginner, right?” he joked.

Mei was grinning. “Of course I do, but how am I supposed to know how much you’ve learnt if I don’t challenge you?”

She had a point, so he let it go and got back onto his feet again. A routine then began – They would start to spar, Wonho would fall on his ass, and then get back up and start again.

By the fifth time, when he hit the floor, he made an annoyed sound and swung his Shinai around to smack her in the ankle.

Mei was laughing, before she reached out a hand to help him up. “Alright, I think I know what we can work on first. You are much too unsteady on your feet. What’s Hyunwoo told you about your footing?”

As the teaching part of the session officially commenced, Hoseok found that Mei was actually an excellent instructor. Even though Hyunwoo was the one who held the classes and was very good at it, Mei seemed to have a natural knack for this. She could explain things in more ways than one if he didn’t understand at first, and was always coming up with silly little ways to remember things.

“Hang on, what have you done with your grip?” she asked halfway through showing him something. “You don’t ever want to sacrifice technique for power – that’s how injuries happen.”

Mei reached out to forcefully move his hands to the right position on his Shinai. As she did so, he found himself chuckling, remembering something from his childhood. “I bet your mother is as frantic about that as mine was.”

Mei paused for a moment, before drawing her hands back, satisfied with his grip. It had only been subtle, but he’d noticed it. His words had made her stop for just a moment. He stayed silent, trying to read her expression as she glanced at her own Shinai.

“I don’t have a mother,” she said easily, taking her stance again. Hoseok didn’t follow her though. It was obvious from the tone of her voice that it wasn’t something she dwelled on, but the mention of it had been enough to make her pause. He felt bad for bringing it up.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, “I didn’t mean to-”

She smiled at him then in reassurance. “It’s fine, I know you didn’t.” She nodded her head at him to raise his Shinai again. “Though now I’m curious about what you did to freak out your own mother.”

He found himself smiling in return, and he took up his stance.

“How about this,” Mei said then, “If you can put the footwork I just taught you into practice and stay on your feet for more than two minutes, I’ll let you tell me that story.”

Hoseok grinned then, “Deal.”

...

By the time training was over, both of them were exhausted. Even though Mei’s skills were far superior, Wonho had still made her work hard. It had been fun, too. The whole time they had been sparring, she’d completely forgotten about her previous frustrations, and had just enjoyed blowing off some steam. No worrying about the uniforms, or her stupid boss, or her uni work - just two people practicing Kendo.

Hoseok had practically collapsed on the wooden floor, lying on his back trying to regain his breath. Hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat. He couldn’t help but think of their conversation earlier, where Mei had mentioned not having a mother. Whether his previous statement had struck a chord or not, she could have chosen to just wave it off as nothing and stay silent, but instead, she had spoken. He liked that she had decided to share that with him – it meant they weren’t the strangers they had been weeks ago when they’d bumped into each other.

He wanted to learn even more about her, find more things they could relate with. Though he knew that a lot of the things she would have grown up with would not compare to his experiences in the future, not by a long shot.

Mei had just shrugged off her breastplate and looked down at him in amusement. “Do you want a hand up or are you resigned to sleeping here for the night?”

Hoseok found himself grinning, “Don’t underestimate the comfort of a wooden floor.”

She laughed then, before shrugging, slowly walking towards the locker room. “Alright, sleep well. Just don’t move or the security system will give you a nice surprise.”

That got him moving, “Wait!”

She was laughing as he caught up to her. “I suppose you can tell me that story, now,” she commented.

He was confused for a moment, before remembering their bargain from earlier. He chuckled, “Hm, where to start…?” He made a show of thinking to himself, though it was really to make sure he wouldn’t mention something that didn’t make sense in this timeline.

They walked into the locker room, and since Hoseok usually took a shower before leaving, they leant against the lockers as he began his story.

“I think I was thirteen or fourteen. I was really into BMX at the time, and I had my little rusty bike that I loved taking on all sorts of adventures. It wasn’t the best bike ever, so I probably should have been more careful with it.”

Mei was grinning, “I think I can see where this is going already.”

Hoseok smiled, lifting a hand to the back of his head, “Yeah I kind of piss-bolted down a hill on it. Next thing a cat darted in front of me and I swerved to try and avoid it and hit the gutter. Front wheel came off and I went straight over the handlebars.”

It mustn’t have been fun at the time, but he was smiling now reminiscing about it. Mei had lifted a hand to cover her open mouth.

“I broke my wrist and cracked two ribs,” he said then, sounding proud of himself.

“And your mother?” Mei asked.

He looked sheepish then, “Almost feinted when a stranger brought me home half conscious.”

She shook her head, “You are the worst kind of son,” she joked. “What does she think of you doing Kendo?”

He paused for a second, glancing to the side. “I don’t know,” he said eventually. “She passed away.”

Mei hadn’t been expecting that. Neither did she know what to say in response.

“It’s alright, it was a while ago,” Wonho said then. “Don’t look so stunned.” His voice had a light relaxed air to it which reassured her it was fine.

Great, so they both didn’t have a mother. What a morbid way to relate to someone.

He tried to make up for the slight awkwardness that statement had caused. “I think she would be very supportive of the Kendo,” he said then, “But still give me a lecture if I managed to injure myself,” he laughed.

That made Mei smile, “That’s what Dad does to me.” She turned to the side for a moment, before pulling a pose not unlike Tae when he adjusted his glasses, “How many years have you been doing this I thought I taught you how to hurt other people not your dang self!”

Hoseok started laughing at her imitation, just when a voice echoed through the locker room.

“That’s funny, I didn’t realise my voice was so high pitched.”

Mei squeaked in surprise and spun around, grinning at the man who now stood at the door with his arms folded. “Hey Dad, when did you get here?”

Hoseok had to stop himself from chuckling, covering his mouth with a closed fist.

Tae gave her an amused look, “Just in time for your wonderful impression, though I would appreciate more effort next time.”

She nodded, “Effort right, I’ll remember that. Did I do the pose right at least?”

As their banter continued, Hoseok decided to sneak off to the showers. He did love watching Mei interact with her Dad, it was different to a lot of parent-child relationships he saw in his time. It was obvious that they were quite close, and especially since it was just the two of them it was quite heart-warming to see.

On the other end of the spectrum, it also pulled at his heartstrings in the wrong way sometimes. Having not met his own father, it made him wish he could have had the same kind of relationship with him. Despite the jealousy he could feel was evident in his heart sometimes, overall he was very glad for her.

When he re-emerged sometime later, having grabbed his bag from the locker room and with only a small amount of time left, Mei was standing by the desk with her own bag, having gotten changed already.

She saw him walking over, and paused her conversation with Tae. “You off?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. “I should probably head home.”

Mei stepped forwards, “I’m out too, gotta smash out an assignment before tomorrow,” she said, turning to give Tae a wave goodbye.

“An entire one?” he said, raising his eyebrows at his daughter.

Rolling her eyes, Mei began to walk towards the door, “No, not an entire one, I totally started it yesterday.”

Tae made a show of rolling his eyes, too. “That statement does not fill me with confidence for your future, young lady.”

As Mei winked at her Dad and sang out, “love you too!” she held the door open so that Wonho could follow her out. She noticed he had an odd look on his face after he’d waved at Tae.

“What?” she asked him curiously.

He shook his head, “Nothing. Just sounded a lot like something S-” He almost said Siri, but of course he couldn’t possibly explain to someone who was born in the 90’s that he had a talking A.I. living in his apartment that would say the same thing. “Something someone else I know would say,” he finished awkwardly.

Mei didn’t seem to notice him stumble through his words, and she glanced over her shoulder at the door, before she started to walk towards the road. “I don’t know where he picks these things up…”

As they walked they continued chatting, but Hoseok was constantly aware of the fact that he didn’t have a destination. He always just found a hidden spot nearby before warping back home, but since Mei was with him he was stuck on what to do.

He vaguely remembered her saying she caught the bus, so he decided he’d walk to the bus stop and then split off in a random direction. That would work. Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy her company.

After they’d been walking for about five minutes, he saw the bus stop and became surprised when Mei walked right past it. Oh boy. Maybe he should have gone in the opposite direction to begin with so she didn’t think he was following her home.

“How do you get to the dojo?” she asked curiously. “I haven’t heard you complain about busses like I do,” she laughed.

Hoseok stuttered, trying to think of something to say. “Oh, um I uh-”

They then heard the loud honk of a train, and Mei glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, I forgot about the train station,” she said then. “Do you catch the train?”

Hoseok turned around, and saw the station. What a relief, that will do. “Yes!” he said, maybe a bit too happily, “Yes, I catch the train.”

“Oh cool,” Mei replied, “Where to? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Now he was scrambling to think of a place that had a train station that he hoped had operated 30 years ago. “Uhh, Insu-Dong,” he blurted. Mei didn’t look confused, so it must have worked. He internally sighed in relief.

“Oh, doesn’t that mean that’s your train?” she asked, pointing to the one that had just pulled into the station.

Hoseok’s eyes widened, and he spun to look at the train. “Ah, yes!” he suddenly said, before making the decision to bolt off down the path towards the station. He quickly turned back to wave back at her as he ran. “Thank you! See you Tuesday!”

She was laughing as she waved back, before turning to keep walking down the road. “Gosh, he’s funny sometimes…”

…

 _“According to my logic, the likelihood of you returning this watch is now at 38 percent,”_ Siri reminded Hoseok helpfully. _“And will continue to drop with the more time you spend with these people.”_

Hoseok was sitting on the edge of his bed, throwing a ball between his hands. “Thank you, Siri,” he said dismissively. “I’m not after percentages though, I asked what you can tell me about the 90’s. What being a kid in the 90’s was like.”

There was a pause.

 _“I am concerned what you may need this information for,”_ Siri said then.

Hoseok rolled his eyes. “I just want to understand more so I can talk to people, what is so bad about that?”

 _“Perhaps that these people are from a time where you do not exist yet,”_ Siri reminded him. _“And to see them you are using one of the watches forbidden by the Federation.”_

Almost as if it were planned, the announcement rang through the city at that moment. Tapping into Siri’s speaker, Hoseok heard it loud and clear like he did every day.

_“Time warp is not allowed. Do not take any watches from C.H.W.”_

If Siri had a face, Hoseok was almost certain he would know exactly the kind of look he would be getting right now. He narrowed his eyes on the ball of light hovering above the coffee table, “Why do you have to be such an…” he realised then what he was talking to, and sighed. “A.I.”

 _“I am sorry, Hoseok,”_ Siri answered, as if it were genuine. _“It is merely in my programming to try and figure out the most positive outcome for all situations.”_

He glanced around the room, seeing all his father’s Kendo equipment. The helmet on his windowsill, the Shinai leaning against the wall, the trophy on his bookshelf. He stood up, and walked over to the wall, where he had the headline of the newspaper from the day his father won the championship. His mother had kept it for years and years in that frame, so that it stayed in perfect condition. The picture was of his father in all his gear, sweating from head to toe, but holding the trophy with a huge smile on his face.

“And what does your logic say the most likely outcome of this scenario is?” he asked then, before turning back around to face the A.I.

Siri had already figured that out on the day the watch had appeared. _“That the Federation catches onto your time warping and punishes you appropriately.”_

Hoseok thought about it for a moment, before a grin appeared on his face. “But that’s not set in stone,” he said then, “Things can change. So many predictions have been proven wrong in the past, and I may never have this kind of opportunity again.”

Siri was silent for a moment, before responding. _“You’ve made up your mind, then.”_

Hoseok was still grinning as he glanced back at the Shinai against the wall. “Damn right I have.”

There was silence for a moment. _“…Now you’re at 35 percent.”_

“Siri!”    


	5. His Hand

Despite Siri’s warnings, Hoseok continued to train at the dojo, keeping a close eye on the times he warped to and from, so that he would only be gone for a second in 2047. It made his days longer, as he was spending hours in 2017, but he didn’t mind. The happiness he felt when noticing his own improvements was well worth it.

One afternoon once training was over, Hyunwoo and Hoseok were sitting on the training room floor, talking about anything and everything. Mei had already gone home, and Tae hadn’t been there at all today, so it was just the two of them. As the weeks had passed they found that they got along ridiculously well, and always found themselves chatting once they were done training.

“How much time have you got left?” Hyunwoo asked him.

Hoseok looked at the watch, “Maybe another ten minutes,” he said.

It was a complete accident that Hyunwoo had found out. In the third week of Hoseok’s training, he’d warped into the middle of the training room, right in front of Hyunwoo’s eyes. Needless to say, Hoseok then had to do a lot of explaining and apologising, but eventually, the man had accepted it. From then on, Hoseok made sure to take a lot of care with where he warped to.

“Mei told me you guys had a lot of fun without me,” Hyunwoo joked then. There had been a few instances in the past weeks where she had needed to step in as Hoseok’s instructor, and he welcomed her unique style of teaching.

Hoseok laughed, “She’s not as strict as you,” he said. “But we still got a lot done.”

Hyunwoo snorted, “She told me you spent fifteen minutes just trying to tie up your uniform because you got the strings tangled.”

That caused Hoseok to burst into laughter, remembering the trouble he’d been having with those damn strings. In the end, Mei had needed to step in and tie his uniform for him as he couldn’t see what he was doing. That was his fault for bundling the uniform into a ball, he supposed.

They both chuckled for a few moments, before a comfortable silence settled between them. Hoseok couldn’t imagine what percentage Siri would give him when he got home, especially since these two were now good friends of his. He didn’t want these meetings to stop.

“You haven’t told her, have you?”

Hoseok glanced sideways at Hyunwoo, who’d broken the silence. He then sighed, looking down at the watch again.

“No,” he admitted. “I don’t want to freak her out.”

Hyunwoo nodded, as if he’d already known that to be the answer. “Will you at least tell me what year you’re from?” He asked.

Hoseok looked at the watch for a little while longer, before he turned to look at him, “2047,” he said finally. “Look, I know you guys are really close and all-”.

“Don’t worry,” Hyunwoo interrupted, “I won’t tell her. It’s not my place.”

Hoseok gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”

…

Some days later, Hoseok had arrived at the dojo and was placing his bag in one of the lockers when he heard a voice.

“Just wanted to check everything was okay cause you weren’t here,” Taehyun must have been on the phone. “Oh I see, when’s the exam?” … “Nah, don’t worry about, I got things covered here.” … “I’m serious, it’s fine. Mei-”

Just as Hoseok walked out of the locker room, he spied Taehyun standing by the front desk, staring at his phone, and shaking his head.

“No Mei today?” Hoseok dared to ask.

Tae looked up, “Oh hey Wonho. She was studying, but now she insists on coming in,” he said, tossing his phone on the desk. He muttered something then that sounded a lot like, “Just like her bloody mother.”

Hoseok tilted his head, “Hm?”

Tae shook his head, waving it off. “Nothing. Have fun with Hyunwoo, he seems to have a lot of energy he wants to burn today,” he joked.

Hoseok laughed, as he turned towards the training room, “Great.”

When he walked in, Hyunwoo was holding one of the wooden practice swords, going through a series of movements. His strikes were measured and precise, and he also looked to be blocking imaginary attacks as well. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was a 4th dan when he moved like that.

Hoseok recognised it as one of the Kata, but it wasn’t one that he knew. It looked a little complicated.

“Don’t worry, I’m not teaching you this one today,” Hyunwoo laughed when he noticed him, pausing in his movements.

“Oh good,” Hoseok replied, walking over. “I didn’t think I’d reached the level of graceful required for that.”

Hyunwoo just laughed and shook his head.

By the time Mei arrived at the dojo, the pair were neck deep in the Kata. Her Dad had insisted everything was fine, but it wasn’t like she didn’t have a buttload of work to do before the next grading.

She darted through the training room over to storage as Wonho and Hyunwoo danced around each other. She did notice that Wonho’s movements had improved immensely since the first time she’d seen him learning the Kata. He looked a lot more confident in what he was doing which was good to see.

As Hoseok turned during one of the Kata movements, he spied Mei ducking into the storage room. Usually she said hello whenever she came in here, she must have been on a mission, he thought.

As they kept going, he could hear her shuffling things around - a bump here, a grunt of effort there. He wasn’t sure what she would have been doing, but after a few moments they heard a crash and a loud curse.

Both of their heads swung around to look at the door. Hyunwoo had his eyebrows creased – wondering if she needed help, but knowing she wouldn’t want it.

“Mei?” he called out carefully. “You all good?”

“Yep!” Was the shouted reply. “Just making a mess,” she explained.

When Hoseok and Hyunwoo faced each other again, they shared a look.

“What would you choose?” Hoseok asked Hyunwoo quietly, “This, or studying?” he nodded his head over to the storage room.

“Is that what she was doing?” Hyunwoo responded, moving to start the Kata again. Hoseok followed, going through the movements as he remembered them. “I bet Tae told her not to come in.”

Hoseok found himself grinning at how correct that was. “He did.”

Hyunwoo shook his head, casting a glance back over to the storage room. “She’s too stubborn for her own good.”

.

When their training session was over, Mei was shuffling around in the office while the boys showered. Her Dad had been pottering around as well, and when he needed to leave he poked his head into the office.

“I’ve gotta run,” he said, “But that doesn’t mean you need to hang around if you’ve got stuff to do.”

Mei folded her arms, “I’ve got stuff to do here.”

He gave her a look, “I’m serious.”

She gave him one back, “And so am I, it’s fine. I’m on top of everything.”

He rolled his eyes in good humour, “Don’t forget that exam,” he said as he turned to leave.

She yelled after him, “Already forgotten!”

When she set back to work, she groaned when she saw the number of parents that would be attending the grading. She’d gone to the storage room to find out how many chairs they still had, but half of them were mysteriously broken. More work for her to do.

Sometime later Hyunwoo emerged from the locker room, a towel still draped around his shoulders, despite having put a shirt on.

“I have to go to work,” he announced sadly as he approached the front desk. “But you should go home.”

Mei looked up, “And why’s that?”

“Because I heard the word exam.”

She rolled her eyes. “Relax, I’ve got it covered.”

Hyunwoo raised an eyebrow, “Oh really?”

“Yes really,” she said, folding her arms. She hated it when Hyunwoo pushed like this instead of just believing her judgement.

“Then why is your eyelid twitching?”

Hoseok could hear the conversation going on from the locker room, as well as the noticeable silence after Hyunwoo’s question.

“It just is,” she replied then, sounding annoyed. “That means nothing.”

“It means you’re tired,” he threw back.

Mei threw her hands onto the desk, “Of this conversation, yes.”

The way those words were delivered was harsh, and Hoseok wondered what the look on Hyunwoo’s face would be at that moment.

“Now piss off already. I’m not a kid anymore, I can look after myself.”

Hoseok heard nothing else after that other than silence.

Hyunwoo had shrugged, as if saying ‘you win’, but the look on his face had said, ‘we’ll talk later’.

After he left, Hoseok took his time drying his hair and gathering his things to give Mei some space. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to join in with the majority opinion, though.

He could hear shuffling around the front area. She was muttering to herself and chucking things around carelessly. It was quite obvious that she was in a bad mood.

When he finally walked out, she had her back to him, and swung her arm out in an annoyed gesture. She’d already done it a few times, but this time she accidentally hit the vase of flowers on the desk, knocking it off.

He’d just reached the foyer when it smashed, and Mei let out a very loud and colourful curse. He considered saying something to her, but then thought better of it and just walked over to grab the broom.

Mei hadn’t heard his footsteps. The first thing she did hear, was the sound of the broom being moved from its spot against the wall, and she spun around.

Hoseok could have sworn that in that moment she jumped ten feet high, as her eyes flew wide. The surprise at seeing him suddenly there was enough to make her gasp.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, standing there holding the broom. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She seemed to relax somewhat then, turning back to the desk, “It’s-it’s fine. I- for some reason I forgot you were here,” she admitted.

He walked over then, intending to sweep up the broken glass. “Are you alright?” he asked carefully.

She turned when she realised what he was doing, “Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ll clean it up.”

He stopped, but didn’t let go of the broom, as he met her gaze. “You didn’t answer my question,” he pointed out.

“I’m fine,” she said, holding out her hand as if saying ‘hand it over’.

He pulled the broom back and folded his arms. “You’re not a very good liar.”

Hoseok could see that he was pushing her buttons. She’d already had enough of this from her Dad and from Hyunwoo whom she’d snapped at. Granted, he didn’t know her as well as them, but they’d both had places they needed to be.

He, on the other hand, had some time to spare to try and do something about whatever this was. And if it meant temporarily pissing her off, then so be it.

She narrowed her eyes, speaking in a deadpan voice, “And what makes you think that?” she asked.

He gestured to her, “Last time I checked that is not what fine looked like.”

Mei rolled her eyes skyward, “Why do I have to argue with you too?” she said, sounding frustrated.

Hoseok leant forwards to start sweeping up the glass, “You’re stressed,” he pointed out. “And-”

She’d had enough, then. She reached out, harshly yanking the broom from his hands. “I’m not stressed, and I don’t need help!”

He’d expected an outburst, but he hadn’t expected her to grab the broom. The force that she’d used to wrench it out of his hands was enough to throw him off balance, and because he’d been hunched over, he’d needed to put a hand on the ground to avoid falling over.

But his hand went straight down onto a piece of glass.

Hoseok winced as he sliced his palm on the broken vase, and the next second Mei’s face went from angry to shocked.

He moved back so that he was sitting on the ground, holding his palm tightly so that he didn’t bleed all over the floor.

Mei ran forwards, “Oh god, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She stood in front of him but didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, she’d just wanted to him to leave her alone. “Are you okay?”

He looked at his hand. It wasn’t a ridiculously deep cut, but it was long, and painful. “I-” He went to speak, but then thought of something. He could use this in his favour.

“I want to say that I’m fine,” he said then, looking up at her. “But to be honest, this stings like a bitch. I don’t like admitting that such a small thing hurts, but it does, and there’s nothing I can do about it unless I ask for help. The same thing goes for everyone.”  

He’d thought of his words carefully, looking right at her. “Your turn,” he said then.

She was looking down at him with mixed emotions on her face. Guilt, obviously, for making him slice his hand on the glass, but also frustration, and then, finally, resignation.

She sighed, throwing her hands into the air helplessly. “Okay, fine. I’m stressed. I’m tired and I’m stressed.” She’d spun around as she spoke, almost as if she couldn’t say it to someone’s face. When she turned back and looked down at him, holding onto his hand, she bit her lower lip. “Stay there,” she murmured then. “I’ll get the first aid kit…”

Some minutes later, Hoseok was sitting on the benchtop in the change rooms, while Mei shuffled through the kit. It was a little strange watching this, as a first aid kit in 2047 would have a computer or very basic A.I. built into it that would tell the user what to do and use – Hoseok would have no clue how to help a sprained ankle or tend to a bee sting otherwise.

Another reason it was strange was because at the workshop, if he ever received cuts or burns he would always just fix himself up with the help of the kit, but he’d let go of his pride today and let Mei help him for a few reasons.

Firstly: to prove his point.

Secondly:  because she seemed to feel quite guilty about it, and he knew that helping him would make her feel better.

Thirdly…it was kind of nice how she doted over him. He didn’t mind letting go of his pride today when those soft hands were tending to his with such care.

There was silence for some time, but it wasn’t awkward. It was comfortable, and if he ignored the sting in his palm, he actually quite liked it. It gave him the opportunity to notice things he hadn’t before.

Her hands were calloused, for one, just like his. It made him wonder if they were just from training with the swords or if she actually did weight training like him as well. Despite this though, her hands were still very gentle when she inspected the cut in his palm.

She then scrunched her eyebrows as she looked back into the kit, looking for things. She’d pursed her lips as well, which was quite cute. He watched her curiously as some loose hair fell in her eyes, and she effortlessly brushed it back with a hand, before focusing on her task again.

It was strange how fascinated he suddenly was with all these little details. There were movements and mannerisms that she must do all the time that he was only just noticing now.

He knew it was weird, but he was suddenly enjoying this moment a lot more than he thought he would.

But then she grabbed his wrist and dragged it under the running water.

“Ah!” he said suddenly, trying to pull his hand back. Her grip on his wrist was tight though, and she didn’t let him go.

“Don’t be a baby,” she teased, “You know it needs to be clean.”

 “But it stings!” he whined in reply, swinging his legs around.

During his little tantrum, he noticed that she was smiling. It was nice to see after her outburst before. Thinking of that, he then realised that the only reason their argument had paused was because of his hand.

He hated to bring the conversation back to it, but they still hadn’t reached a solution. He wondered if he could bring it up without ruining her mood.

Mei let go of his wrist and he brought it back to himself, as if he could protect it from being attacked by more water.

She then broke the silence before he had a chance to, as she sifted through the kit for the right bandage. “One of my well-known habits,” she murmured quietly. “Is trying to do a thousand things at once.”

He couldn’t help raising his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to bring it up, especially since she’d been in such a bad mood before. Since he’d hurt himself though, she’d seemed to calm down a lot and appeared to be more like herself. Maybe it was just what she’d needed to really start questioning herself.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything, and he had a feeling she had more to say. She held his hand gently as she began to bandage it, her head down as he focused on the task.

“It was actually a trait that I inherited from my mother.”

He couldn’t help but react to that, as he remembered her previously saying, ‘I don’t have a mother’. Of course, that couldn’t be biologically true, but from the tone of her voice back then, he never expected her to mention any more about it.

“Your mother?” he asked.

She looked up at him, then. “Yeah,” she said, before looking back down. “I don’t know much about her, because I never met her, but apparently she did the same thing. But dad never mentioned her…” she paused, looking down at his hand, as if trying to find the right words, “Not being able to do something.”

Hoseok smiled slightly. “Look, I hate to tell you this, but you’re not a superhero. You can’t do everything.”

“I know,” she conceded, “But I’m not trying to do everything, and I don’t like needing help with things. I’m capable.”

“You are,” he agreed, “But think about everything you have on your plate right now. You’re a full-time uni student, working twenty something hours a week, AND co-running this place. Not to mention you also manage to fit training in between all of that. That’s like having two full time jobs.” He waited for her to look at him before he continued. “I don’t know anybody who can pull that off.”

She finished with the bandage, but didn’t let go of his hand straight away. She was thinking, taking his words in. He couldn’t help but notice her chewing on the inside of her lip.

“What do you suggest, then?” she asked. She always wanted to do things herself, but she had an exam in two days that she definitely was not prepared for. She didn’t want to keep doing this, but she couldn’t give up any of these things, either.

“Make it more manageable,” he said. “Let me help around here in return for the Kendo, and you can use the time to study.”

She considered it, and then went to protest, “But-”

“You’ll still be here,” he said then, “Just tell me what to do.”

He watched her think over the proposal for a moment, and she started lightly tapping her thumbs against the bandage. He looked down then, having forgotten that she was still holding onto his hand.

“Don’t tell me you’re about to turn down an offer to boss me around,” he joked with a grin.

Mei then followed his line of vision and realised she still had his hand. She let him go with a sheepish look.

When she met his gaze again, she looked like she’d made a decision. “Alright,” she said finally. “You have a deal.”

“Good,” Hoseok smiled. “Now are you going to apologise to Hyunwoo for yelling at him?”

The look on her face suggested she’d forgotten about it. “Ugh,” she said regretfully, turning to close the first aid kit. “He’s going to kick my ass when he comes home.”


	6. His Help

After Mei had finished bandaging up Hoseok’s hand, they walked back out to the front area, to see there was still glass all over the floor. Without saying anything, Hoseok walked over to grab the broom so he could sweep it up as he originally intended to before.

“Nuh-uh,” Mei said instantly, snatching the broom before he could grab it. “You sit. I’ll clean this up.”

This time, he didn’t argue. He just chuckled and let her take the broom. As he sat down in the desk chair, he braved a cheeky question. “Was your mother that sassy too?” he asked.

Thankfully, it just made her laugh as she swept up the glass. He was so glad to see that she looked more relaxed than she had been all afternoon. The fact that he’d helped with that gave him a really warm feeling, too.

“I’m not sure about that one,” Mei responded, sweeping the glass into a dustpan. “All I know about her is what Dad’s told me, and since he was madly in love with her I feel the stories are a bit…biased.” Now it was Hoseok’s turn to chuckle when he saw the amusing look on her face.

Once Mei was done cleaning up the glass, they decided to call it a day. Hoseok checked that all the doors and windows were locked while Mei put away the broom, and he held the front door open for her as they walked out.

He was thinking to himself as she locked up, their conversation about her mother making him increasingly curious. He wondered if she would mind him asking more about it.

“If you don’t mind me asking…” he found himself saying as they began to walk down the road, “What happened?”

Mei looked up to the sky, as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I was asking Dad that question for years. At first, he didn’t really want to talk about it, probably because he was heartbroken…”

She began to explain the story that Tae had told her many years ago, as they walked along the road towards the train station.

_._

_“Every day I look at you, I’m reminded of your mother,” he had said to her back then. “You have her eyes. Everyone talks about how you have my nose, but nobody is brave enough to mention your eyes. Or your fighting spirit.”_

_Mei raised an eyebrow at him._

_"You think you got that insane determination from me? Your mother was working three jobs when I met her. She knew what she wanted, and she’d always make sure she got it.”_

Mei remembered laughing at that.

 _“I wanted to marry her, you know,”_ he continued. _“She was bold and beautiful and so sure of herself in everything she did. Of course, she knew my intentions without me even mentioning it.”_

" _What did she say?” Mei asked._

_“She said ‘don’t you dare propose to me.’ She wasn’t one for that kind of commitment. I kept thinking that I would sway her one day. Then, we found out that she was pregnant with you, and I thought ‘This is it. We’re in it for life.”_

_Tae had looked down then, as if contemplating on how much of a naive idiot he’d been._

_“But almost as soon as you were born, she was gone. No note, no nothing.”_

_._

Hoseok’s eyebrows had shot up. “You’re kidding.”

Mei shook her head, “Nope. She just up and left without a word.”

He couldn’t comprehend that idea. That she just left them like that was so…

Lots of words came to mind, but he didn’t voice any of them. He was sure Mei would have thought of it one hundred times.

Instead, he said, “He must have been devastated.”

She nodded, “I think he was. But, he wasn’t alone in raising me, at least. Nu was two years old at that point, so Aunty Ji was already an expert at parenting,” she laughed. “It’s why I thought we were related for so long because the four of us were always together.”

Hoseok found himself smiling, “That’s sweet.”

Mei was nodding, a small smile on her face, also. “Yeah. Dad and I are really close too, which I love, but I can’t help but think what things could have been like if she’d never left…”

There was the tug of heartstrings again. Hoseok glanced at the ground, before looking up again.

“If it helps…” he found himself saying. “I never met my Dad.”

Her head snapped up, “Really?” she asked.

He nodded. “Well, technically I did, I was just too young to remember. He passed away when I was two. So, I know what you mean with that sentiment.”

Mei had almost stopped walking. She was looking at him with such a strange expression that he wasn’t sure what was going through her head.

He glanced to the side, “I mean, it’s not the same, but-”

“No, no, I totally get it,” Mei said then, a small smile appearing on her face again. “We just- have such strange things in common,” she laughed.

They’d reached the path that lead off to the train station, and they stopped.

Hoseok gave her a cheeky grin, “Strange is interesting, though,” he commented.

That made her laugh, “It sure is.”

He then turned to walk towards the train, “I’ll see you next week.”

Before he could go though, Mei stepped forwards and grabbed his wrist. “Hang on.”

He turned back to her, an eyebrow quirked in question. In the next moment, he was quite surprised because she’d thrown her arms around his shoulders in a hug.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you before,” she murmured. “And thank you.”

He was smiling as he hugged her back, and then she let him go. “You’re forgiven,” he said. “And relax,” he then added, lifting his bandaged hand. “This will heal in no time.”

He knew she would still be feeling guilty about it for some time, but at least she was laughing now as he began to walk backwards towards the train.

“It better!” she called out to him.

He waved at her and then turned around to keep walking. Despite the fact that the cut in his hand was still stinging, he couldn’t remove the smile from his face.

…

After Mei had walked home, she set to the task of cramming for her exam. Because her room was a mess, she had set herself up on the floor of the living room, with books and notes scattered across the rug. She had a plan, now – granted it involved skipping one of her classes tomorrow and calling in sick for work, but she could watch the lecture online and the café could deal. So long as she followed the plan, she just might pass. Maybe.

It was quite late by the time the front door opened. Hours had passed in a flash, and she looked at the clock in surprise as Hyunwoo’s face appeared.

He glanced over at her as he closed the door. “Are you still pissy or will you talk to me now?” he asked.

Mei glanced to the side, “No, I’m good now, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m stressed and tired and was trying to do everything and took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

Hyunwoo blinked. “What?”

She folded her arms, “What’s that look for? I just apologised.”

He was giving her the most bizarre look. “I know but…that’s the first time you’ve ever admitted that. Who are you and what did you do to Mei?” he laughed as he walked over.

She rolled her eyes. “I just had a bit of an eye opener is all,” she muttered, sitting up. When she looked back to him, he’d sat down on the couch and was looking at her quizzically. His eyes said one thing. ‘How?’

Mei sighed, leaning back on her hands, “Okay, I kind of accidentally made Wonho cut his hand open.”

Hyunwoo blinked.

“You what?!”

…

“If you’re going to drag me to the gym,” Minhyuk huffed, sitting on Hoseok’s bed with a bored look, “At least give me a time that you can adhere to.”

Poking his head out of the bathroom, a towel still wrapped around his waist, Hoseok gave him a look. “Hey, I said get here at six, not we’re leaving at six. I thought you enjoyed my company.”

Minhyuk pouted, “You’re showering! Why did you need to shower anyway, you’re going to stink after your work out.”

Hoseok shook his head as he walked back into the bathroom, trying to find the clothes he’d dumped on the floor earlier. “I told you, my hands were so covered in grease from that damn machine today I wouldn’t be able to hold a dumbbell. I would’ve been happy to put my armpit in your face, though.”

Minhyuk had stood up while he was talking, wondering around the room aimlessly. “Very funny,” he said.

 _“Was that sarcasm, Minhyuk?”_ Siri spoke up from her usual spot above the coffee table.

He laughed, “Yes Siri, it was.” He then spoke up again so Hoseok could hear him, “Can you even lift weights with that hand of yours? You still haven’t told me how you hurt it.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine, I’ll be careful. And I just misjudged something at the workshop, that’s all.”

His answer seemed to satisfy Minhyuk, so Hoseok let out a relieved breath as his friend then started bantering with Siri. At least something could keep him entertained. Just as Hoseok was about to walk back out, he heard a very loud gasp.

“LEE HOSEOK WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?!” was the outburst that soon followed.

He’d creased his eyebrows as he walked back out of the bathroom, and his stomach dropped when he saw what Minhyuk had in his hand.

It was the watch.

He ran over with wide eyes, snatching it off him. “It’s nothing, where did you find this?” 

Minhyuk jumped to try and get it back, as Hoseok turned his back on him. “That’s not nothing! I know what that is! That’s a-”

A hand clamped down on his mouth then. “Okay, okay, yes it’s what you think it is but SHHH.”

Minhyuk nodded, and after a moment, Hoseok released him. “How did you-I mean that’s a-what are doing with it?”

Hoseok did not look very happy about his secret being found, but at least it was his friend and not the feds. “I’ll tell you if you calm down and shut up.”

Minhyuk made a motion as if he were zipping his lips shut, nodding vigorously. Hoseok sighed. Now he was going to have to explain everything.

He sat down on the couch, and Minhyuk followed, watching him intently. He couldn’t help but take a guess before the man had even started explaining.

“Don’t tell me you were in league with this C.H.W guy,” he said.

“No!” Hoseok said straight away, “You know you’re the only person I talk to here.”

Minhyuk raised an eyebrow, “Here?”

And there was slip up number one. Hoseok had other friends now. He sighed again, lifting the watch in his hand. “I don’t know where it came from, but it’s not an original. Siri said it isn’t stamped as one of the fifty that were released, and they were all recovered anyway.”

Minhyuk suddenly sat up at attention, “Hang on, is it safe having it here? If Siri-”

“Relax, I reprogrammed her, remember?” Hoseok reminded him. “The only info she sends the feds is the stuff I want her to send. I’m not that stupid.”

Minhyuk seemed to relax a bit, then. “That’s actually brilliant. Can you reprogram mine?”

“Only if you stop interrupting me,” Hoseok said with a dry voice. Minhyuk made the motion of shutting his lips again, and he let Hoseok tell his story.

He explained how he’d mysteriously found the watch back in September and had used it with the idea of testing it out before returning it to the federation.

But after he’d tried it once, he just had to go back. Now, he was using it twice a week to travel back to 2017 so he could practice Kendo at the small family dojo. When Minhyuk asked specifics, he explained that the dates and times were roughly the same, so as not to confuse himself. It just made his Tuesdays and Thursdays several hours longer.

Minhyuk was scratching his head. “So, tomorrow being the 7th of November, does that mean you’ll travel to the 7th of November in 2017?”

His friend nodded. “It just adds into my routine.”

 _“By the way Hoseok,”_ Siri spoke up then, catching their attention. _“You are now at 16%.”_

He turned a deadpan expression on the A.I.

“Thanks.”

...

The next time he visited the dojo, Mei had been sitting at the front desk with a pile of books in front of her. Her hair was pulled back into a bun – probably to stop it from falling in her eyes – as opposed to the braids she usually had when practicing Kendo. He assumed she had skipped training today to focus on study.

She’d looked up and smiled at him when he walked in, and it was suddenly like the frustrations from his day at work dissipated. He’d hated seeing her so stressed out last week, and really wanted her to do well with her studies and everything she did, really. So, seeing her smiling now, having taken his advice, warmed his heart.

“I’ve got jobs for you,” she said as a way of greeting, putting her book down with a grin.

“Oh brilliant,” he said sarcastically, though he was smiling. “Remember I offered to help, don’t exploit it.”

She laughed as he walked over to the locker room. “I won’t, I promise!”

He laughed also as he disappeared around the corner, throwing his bag onto one of the benches to pull out his uniform. Despite his comment, he didn’t imagine there would be any job she could give him that he wouldn’t do.

Now his boss on the other hand, was someone he constantly wanted to flip off whenever given a job. Could he just stay in this time forever?

He shook his head as he got changed. He shouldn’t be thinking like that.

.

The lesson with Hyunwoo had gone as it always did – fun but hard, and a handful of wise cracks from Hoseok as Hyunwoo gave him more exercises to do.

When they had been halfway through one of the Kata, Hyunwoo just couldn’t help but ask.

“What did you do?”

Hoseok paused, giving him an odd look. “What do you mean?”

Hyunwoo glanced behind him, to make sure Mei wasn’t sneaking around like she sometimes did.

“Never in her life has Mei admitted to being stressed,” he said then, moving into the next movement. Hoseok followed with the steps he remembered. “What did you do?” Nu asked again.

Hoseok shrugged, as they kept going through the movements. “I pushed her buttons and she snapped,” he explained quietly. “But I guess she felt guilty enough about my hand that it made her actually stop and think?”

Nu looked at Hoseok’s hand, which had some tape wrapped around it, protecting the cut. He shook his head in disbelief, as they kept up their speed with each part of the Kata. “Well whatever you did, it was brilliant. She can be really stubborn when she wants to be.”

Hoseok couldn’t help the smile that reached his face then, as he glanced back in the direction of where she would have been sitting around the corner, cramming for Uni. “I know.”

…

By the time they were done and Hoseok had gotten changed out of his kendo uniform, Mei had a handful of small jobs lined up that he could do for her. It was simple things like sweeping the floor or organising the equipment scattered about the place, which he did without question and with a smile on his face.

There was also a lot of paperwork to do with the grading coming up for the little Kendoka’s, which he helped with as well.

“When is the grading?” he asked as he sorted through the forms of who had paid and who hadn’t.

Mei looked over her shoulder, “This weekend,” she said, not sounding all too happy. “There’s…a lot to do,” she admitted. “I’ll be running the grading as Dad is working, and Nu can only make it for a very short time.”

Hoseok paused what he was doing and looked back at her. He wondered if she would ask, or if her pride had taken enough of a beating in the last week. She hadn’t turned back around, but instead was staring into space, as if running through everything to do in her head.

“What is there to do?” he asked after a moment.

Her gaze focused on him again, and he noticed she was chewing on the inside of her cheek again. It shouldn’t have been cute considering it was a nervous habit of hers, but it was.

“Pick up the extra chairs,” she began, “Organise the P.A system, and all the mats and paperwork and uniforms…”

He gave her a small smile, as if it should have been obvious what he was going to say.

“I can do that.”

She was looking at him as if she was looking for something. Maybe a sign that he was joking, or was only saying that because he felt obliged to.

Whatever she was looking for, she didn’t find it. She only saw sincerity in those dark unwavering eyes.

Eventually, she gave him a grateful look as she responded. “If you don’t mind…” she glanced down, as if unsure even though he had already offered, “I would really appreciate it.”

He smiled, and it seemed to reassure her. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll be there whenever you need me.”


	7. The Grading

After he’d finished helping Mei for the afternoon, Hoseok was in the office, returning some paperwork folders to their places in the filing cabinet. He hadn’t paid much attention to what was on the walls before, as it was mostly club photos, but when he glanced up after closing the drawer, he spotted something.

Curiously, he walked over to what looked like a photo of two young Kendokas, a man who appeared to be a younger version of Taehyun, as well as an unfamiliar woman – Hyunwoo’s mother maybe? It must have been Mei and Hyunwoo when they first started training. It was weird seeing a photo of them as kids, but it was also cute. They really did look like a little family there, having practically grown up together.

He was vaguely aware of Mei walking into the office behind him as he continued to stare at the photos. The next one appeared to have Mei and Hyunwoo in it as well, slightly older than the first one, as well as Taehyun, but also another, older man.

“That’s my grandfather,” Mei said, walking up beside him. Hoseok glanced at her for a second, before looking back at the photo. He connected the dots in his head from information he’d already been told.

“Was this the day your father took over the dojo?” he asked curiously.

Mei shook her head, “Nah, he’s been running this place since before I was born. Grandad could only handle screaming kids for so long,” she joked. “Though Grandma did always joke about setting up her own day-care centre in here.” Mei found herself chuckling, “She still does, actually.”

Her laugh was so soft and musical, he wanted to make her laugh again. He couldn’t think of anything to say at the moment that would do that though. He was smiling as he tried to look around the wall for more pictures, “Is there a photo of her here too?” he asked.

Mei took a few steps to the side, past pictures of herself at gradings from years ago, “There’s probably something lying around of her back in the old days…”

Hoseok then spotted something else and walked over to the back wall towards what appeared to be newspaper clippings.

Mei noticed and followed him, “Ah, that’s Nu’s little corner. People he looks up to...”

Whatever Mei said next was completely lost on Hoseok’s ears, because as he’d walked over, he’d spotted a name.

There was a newspaper article on the wall, that appeared to talk about a relatively local competition, and the winner had been described as a ‘lightning fast individual who was bound to go far’.

The winner’s name was Lee Baekhyun.

Hoseok could barely comprehend what he was seeing. He was thirty years in the past, and he was looking at a photo of his father. He’d known the possibility of there being some sort of crossover, but now that he was looking right at it, he didn’t know what to do. His mind just couldn’t process it. To be so close to this man he’d never met, who was currently walking the earth right now, but still so far…

The only thing he could manage to say was, “But he hasn’t won the championship yet…”

He’d forgotten Mei was standing beside him until she chirped, “You mean Baekhyun? You think he will?”

Suddenly he was back in reality, and he realised what he had just said. “Um, well I mean-” his mind tried running a mile a minute to cover up his slip up. “He certainly has the potential,” he blundered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he reached the world level.”

Mei either didn’t notice his stuttering or was kind enough to ignore it. “I hope he does,” she said, “Nu really admires him. If Baekhyun ever competes nearby, I’m sure Nu would jump at the chance to see him.”

Hoseok had such an odd feeling creeping through his chest, but he forced a smile. “That would be nice.”

…

The look of Hoseok’s apartment wasn’t very welcoming after spending time with his friends in the past, as always. He was considering going to the gym to pass the rest of the evening, but he was tired out enough from Kendo.

Before he could decide what to do, he noticed something on his bookshelf had fallen over, so he walked over to fix it up. These frames were probably too old by now, he thought as he picked them up and re-positioned them. The photo of him and his mother looked back at him, and instead of the usual nostalgic sadness he would feel upon thinking about her, his mind went straight to Mei.

His mother had loved him so much, but Mei’s had wanted nothing to do with her. The pain of losing a someone you loved was one thing, but knowing that one of your own parents never loved you? He couldn’t imagine it. He may not have either of his parents around anymore, but at least he knew how much he meant to them.

He turned away from the photo, telling himself that he shouldn’t dwell on it. If Mei wanted to talk about it, she would, and Tae obviously loved her very much, so there wasn’t any reason for him to worry about it.

As he’d turned away, his eyes landed on the newspaper article from the Championship, still hanging in its frame on the wall. When he glanced at it, he thought he was crazy. He’d looked at this article maybe a million times, and now his mind was playing tricks on him. He did a double take.

No, something had changed.

He stared with wide eyes as he saw that the words had actually changed.

_Gold medallist: Lee Baekhyun, Korea._

_Silver medallist: Kobayashi Mitsukuni, Japan._

_Bronze medallist: Sohn Hyunwoo, Korea._

Hoseok found himself covering his mouth in shock. The bronze medallist had always been a Japanese man named Yamada Kazuo. Always. But now…Kazuo was fourth.

How had it suddenly changed like this? What happened?

Hoseok tried to think about what on earth had changed, and then remembered.

He’d spoken to Hyunwoo just before he’d left. But surely…it can’t have made that much of a difference, could it?

* * *

_Hyunwoo had appeared in the office right after Hoseok had found the newspaper article about Baekhyun. “Do you compete, Hyunwoo?” Hoseok had asked him then._

_'Yeah, I do a lot of competing,” Nu answered. “I missed a few comps this year, though. I’m not sure if I want to keep bothering.”_

_Hoseok quirked an eyebrow at him. “Why’s that?”_

_Nu shrugged, “It’s a Japanese dominated comp, there’s not much further I can go because they’re so much better.”_

_He hadn’t even thought about what he was saying. “Are you kidding? That’s no excuse to give up. Do you enjoy it?”_

_Hyunwoo had glanced to the side, “Of course I do, but-”_

_“Then there’s no excuse you idiot,” Hoseok walked over and punched him in the arm. “If you want to do something, then do it. And if you work hard enough, you’ll achieve it.”_

_Hyunwoo had been looking at him in surprise. “I didn’t know you had such pep talks in you, Wonho.”_

_He’d laughed, “Why else do you think I’m here, trying to learn a sport that you guys started over a decade ago?” Hyunwoo stayed silent, as he was sure he’d hear the answer. “Because I want to, so I’m going to.”_

* * *

Hoseok was staring at the newspaper with wide eyes. Had those few sentences actually changed the course of time?

“Oh my god…” he murmured. “I think I just changed the future.”

…

“I don’t think I can feel my legs,” Hoseok laughed, lying on the floor of the dojo after an intense training session. It was another one of those days where Mei was busy studying at home and Tae had other things to do, meaning it was just him and Hyunwoo at the dojo.

“Don’t worry,” Nu chuckled as he responded, “You get used it.”

Hoseok always enjoyed these days where he got to just sit and talk with Hyunwoo. Their topics of conversation ranged from small silly things through to more meaningful topics, and even when there wasn’t much they wanted to talk about, the silence was peaceful and comfortable. He was trying not to think about his discovery from the other day, especially since it was about the man who was currently lying beside him. He hadn’t really known what to do about that piece of information, so was most certainly going to keep it to himself.

“I saw all those old photos of you guys in the office,” Hoseok commented. “You’re both so little.”

Hyunwoo laughed, “Those were the days. Tae was an awesome instructor.”

“That woman in one of the photos, is that your mother?” Hoseok asked.

“Yeah,” Hyunwoo replied. “She was always lurking around the dojo when we were kids, helping Tae out where she could.”

Hoseok turned his head, “You don’t talk about your parents much,” he noted.

Shrugging, Nu lifted his arms up to rest under his head. “There’s not much to talk about, they divorced when I was young. I don’t really see my Dad all that often, but that doesn’t bother me. Tae’s always been more of a Dad to me anyway.”

They really were like a family. The thought made Hoseok smile. “So, Tae and your mother are pretty much like you and Mei?” he asked.

Nu smiled. “To an extent, yeah. They’ve been friends since high school. Only…there’s a bit more to it.”

Hoseok quirked an eyebrow, “Oh?”

“They’re totally into each other,” Hyunwoo laughed. “Mei and I have been waiting for something to happen for like ten years; if it takes any longer we may have to intervene.”

That made Hoseok laugh. The idea of Mei and Hyunwoo trying to plot to get their parents together was an amusing thought indeed.

…

The day of the grading, Hoseok had planned everything out perfectly. Knowing he had a time limit, he’d found out all the details from Mei about how the day would run and made sure he jumped to just the right time before it started. Not only that, but he’d gotten everything done in record time, too.

The paperwork was sorted, the uniforms had been organised for the little Kendokas prior to today, the big heavy mats had been pulled out of storage and placed at the front, the chairs had been picked up and set up for all of the parents, and the P.A. system was set up, tested, and ready to go.

Mei was astonished. He’d done everything. “You even swept the floors,” she said incredulously, noting how all the grass from the day prior was gone.

He was grinning at her as he held the microphone from the P.A, pretending to still be testing it. He tapped it twice, and then spoke into it so that his words echoed off the walls. “You’re welcome.”

That made Mei laugh, and she playfully shoved him, making him laugh, too.

“Come on, the kids will be here soon,” she said, as he put the microphone down. She went to move towards the entrance, and then stopped. “Wait…” she turned back to him, as if only just thinking of something. “Are you good with handling kids?”

.

Hyunwoo had shown up amongst the flood of children and parents, greeting them all with Mei as they sent the kids off to get ready. There were quite a few kids here, all ranging from about six through to twelve. How Mei had expected to handle them all on her own Hoseok would never be sure.

They’d had a moment of break just before the grading started, and Mei looked around, trying to figure out where the boys had gone.

Then, she spotted them. They were sitting down over by the equipment, casually snacking on cookies and joking about between themselves. She shook her head as she walked over.

“What are you two doing?” she asked.

“Eating,” Hyunwoo responded with a grin.

“That’s great, who wants to volunteer to warm the kids up?” she asked.

They turned to look at each other.

After a moment, Wonho sighed. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

As he stood up and adjusted his uniform, Mei raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? They can be a lot to handle.”

He waved a hand at her, as he stepped past, “I’ll be fine.”

Several minutes later, Mei was watching in amazement as he had the entire group of children giving him their full attention. Instead of trying to tell them what to do – which she knew for a fact some of the kids wouldn’t like especially if he were a stranger – he had told them that he was new to kendo and had asked for their help to show him what to do.

It was the first time Mei had seen so many little children all trying to shout instructions to a single fully grown man.

In simple terms, it was adorable.

“Like this?” he asked them, feigning ignorance to warm up moves he’d been doing twice a week for months.

“No!” the children told him, “Like this!” They all tried to demonstrate the move, and he made an understanding sound, before copying them.

“And then what do we do?” he asked.

Hyunwoo stepped up beside Mei, letting her know he had to go. Thankfully, after seeing this little display, he didn’t feel as guilty about leaving as he thought he would. “Looks like Wonho has everything handled here,” he commented with a chuckle.

After Hyunwoo left, the grading went on without a hitch. Wonho was a major help in keeping the kids organised while Mei ran the grading, as one by one the students showcased their skills in the kata and sparring. It was amusing seeing that all the children were further ahead in their training than Wonho was, [C]but instead of finding it embarrassing he used it to his advantage to make the kids laugh. They all seemed to warm up to him incredibly quickly.

Once the grading was coming to an end, the oldest of the children – a twelve year old boy who was only a year off of grading up to 1st dan – pulled on his sleeve.

“Wonho-hyung,” he said, grabbing the man’s attention. “Will you show us your kata?” he asked.

He looked uncertain, as this grading wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with him. “Oh, I’m not sure if…” he glanced up to try and find Mei for help.

Another of the children jumped up then, grabbing onto his uniform as well, “Pleeeease?”

He found her then and managed to catch her eye across the room. When she saw the kids jumping up and down around him, she came over.

“We want to see Wonho’s kata!” they said to her.

Mei laughed, “He’s only a Rokkyu, you’ve seen this kata before.”

They didn’t seem to care. He’d obviously gotten the admiration of these kids and anything he had to show would be appreciated by them.

“Oh alright,” she said then. “Wonho can show you all his kata. But you have to sit still and be nice and quiet as if he were grading okay?”

“Okay!” they all cheered, and organised themselves in a neat little line to sit and watch.

Mei was smiling at them fondly when Wonho turned to her, holding out a Shinai. “Mei,” he said, “Will you be my Uchidachi?”

She laughed as she took the Shinai, “Of course.”

The kids were fascinated to watch this big grown man go through the simplest of the kata with Mei, and some of them even tried being judges to his movements, earning quiet little chuckles from the others.

Overall, it was actually one of the most enjoyable gradings Mei had been involved in recently. After they’d finished up the Kata and earnt a small applause from the kids, Wonho jumped in to do a warm down activity, giving Mei a break.

While the kids were all focused on Wonho, one of the parents came up to Mei for a chat. She knew most of the parents quite well and had some good conversations with a few of them sometimes while the kids were training. The mother asked her about her uni work, which she sugar coated the answer for, but glanced back over to Wonho, grateful for all of the help he’d been giving her lately.

“And who’s this young man? I’ve never seen him before,” the woman asked.

Mei smiled, “That’s Wonho, he’s Hyunwoo’s newest student. I think he started here in late September.”

“He’s amazing with the kids,” she commented, “And so sweet too; while you were getting them organised he came over to make sure we were all comfortable.”

“He did?” Mei asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise. At this point though, she realised it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. She’d seen first hand how considerate he was.

“Oh yes, he was very lovely,” she responded. “I would have felt bad if you’d had to do all of this on your own without Tae or Hyunwoo. I think most of the parents will agree that he’s a wonderful addition to the dojo.”

Mei was smiling warmly as she turned to look back over at Wonho, who’d finished the warm down with the kids and was now playing about with them. “Yeah,” she said in response. “He is.”

...

By the time the grading had finished and every child and parent had disappeared, Mei and Hoseok were shuffling about the dojo trying to clear everything away. The day had gone by smoothly, which Mei was relieved at. She couldn’t wait to tell her dad how great Wonho had been with the kids.

As they dragged the mats back over towards the storage room, Wonho couldn’t help but voice a complaint.

“I’m hungry,” he whined in good humour.

Mei laughed, “Me too, those kids have so much energy I’m exhausted.”

“Tell me about it,” he chuckled. He then both heard and felt his stomach grumble. “When I get home, I am going to make the biggest bowl of ramen…”

“Is that your favourite food?” Mei asked curiously.

“It is actually,” he responded, and she stepped aside so he could push one of the mats back into storage. Once it was up against the wall, Mei spoke again.

“Tsuyaki’s is my favourite,” she said.

He stopped and turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Tsuyaki’s?”

She was surprised that the name wasn’t familiar to him. “You’ve never been to Tsuyaki’s?” She asked. “It’s the best ramen place here!”

He glanced around himself, “Uh, I haven’t really lived in this area for too long…” he tried to cover up his ignorance. It seemed to work though, because Mei’s expression changed.

“Oh, okay. Well…” she seemed to be debating something, before she stood up straight. “It’s not very far from here. If you happen to be free sometime during the week I could…show you, if you like?”

Hoseok looked back to her, that warm smile on her face as she awaited his answer. That was when he realised that she was asking if he wanted to spend time with her outside of the dojo. There was some part of him that was throwing up alarm bells, but the rest of him had no idea why. The idea gave him such a light giddy feeling.

Spending time with Mei.

Just the two of them.

Outside the dojo.

He couldn’t help the smile that broke out onto his face then. “I’d like that.”

“Great!” Mei said in reply, seeming happy with the response. “Um, do you have your phone on you? I can text you the address.”

Hoseok almost froze. Oh boy. He did not have a phone that would work in 2017, let alone send time travelling text messages. His mind tried to frantically think of a way out of this.

“I don’t have a phone,” he said lamely, and then internally cursed. What twenty-four-year-old didn’t have a mobile phone in 2017?

Just as Mei’s expression had changed to confusion, he tried to fix his blunder. “Because it’s being repaired! I don’t have it right now. But I’ll get it back…eventually.”

She seemed satisfied with that, “Oh okay. Well in that case…we could just meet here? It’s not that far to walk.”

“Great, yeah, that’s great,” Hoseok responded, wondering why his ability to talk properly was suddenly missing.

He willed himself to start functioning normally again as they organised a day and time. To him it didn’t matter, considering he had the time warping watch, which also meant he couldn’t possibly be late.

By the time he was leaving, having finished helping her clean up, he had a bright smile on his face as he thought about their plans. He had a feeling he would need to refrain from just jumping straight forward to it instead of waiting it out until the actual day. Discipline was a hard thing to have when you had a time warping watch.

When he warped back to the future to his dark apartment, Siri’s light welcomed him.

 _“You look very happy,”_ she noted.

He walked over and fell back onto the bed, noting how his ability to speak still seemed to be impaired. He couldn’t stop smiling. “I-well….Yeah.”


	8. Their Teasing

The morning was slow and dreary as the sun moved in and out of the clouds, and Mei was tapping her pen on the desk as she tried to focus on studying. Usually she could get into the groove once she started reading, but today her mind was elsewhere. She liked to overthink things, and boy was she doing a lot of overthinking today.

“In all my years,” Taehyun then said, interrupting her thoughts as he walked into her room. “I have never seen such a dodgy fitting.”

Mei looked up from the textbook to see her father holding up what must have been said fitting for the tap in the bathroom. She hadn’t needed to take a shower this morning, but in the end had gotten one anyway when the faucet had broken on her and started spurting water everywhere. Not the most pleasant way to start the morning. 

Thankfully Tae knew a thing or two when it came to dodgy taps, and he’d had the morning off to come around and have a look at it.

“So, can you fix it?” she asked him.

He gave her an incredulous look, “Of course I can fix it, I wasn’t a plumber for four years for nothing,” he stated, making her chuckle.

“Sorry oh wise one, I thought you may have forgotten a few things in your old age,” she joked, standing up from her desk in need of a break.

Tae had a mock furious look on his face as Mei ducked past him through the door. He followed her as she walked out to the kitchen.

“You can’t call me old yet missy, not until I have wrinkles and start forgetting things.”

Mei had needed a coffee refill, and she didn’t need to ask her Dad if he wanted one, too, as she pulled an extra mug out of the cupboard. “And you need to keep your voice down, or you’ll wake Nu up. He worked a late shift last night,” she reminded him. Tae nodded sheepishly, lifting a hand to send an apologetic look over to Hyunwoo’s bedroom door.

As Mei went to open the fridge to get the milk, she spied a coupon for Tsuyaki’s that had been sitting there for a few weeks. Despite how much she’d been overthinking the whole thing, just seeing that sent a warm feeling through her. She hadn’t realised she had a silly grin on her face as she pulled out the milk, but Tae certainly did.

As she handed him his coffee, he raised an eyebrow at her, “Why, may I ask, are you grinning at a Tsuyaki’s coupon?”

Mei glanced back at the coupon, before taking a sip from her coffee, “No reason.”

Tae laughed at her. “You’re a terrible liar,” he said with a grin. “You’re happy about something,” he pointed out. “I like seeing you happy.”

Mei looked to the side, “It’s nothing exciting, I just have a social life for once. Wonho’s never been to Tsuyaki’s so I offered to show him how awesome their ramen is.”

Tae’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh really?” he placed his mug down. “Would this happen to be a da-”

Mei gave him a stern look, “Don’t.”

“D-”

“Dad.”

“Da-”

“I’m serious.”

“D-”

“Stop it.”

“D-date?”

When he was done, Mei was giving him a blank look. “I’m just showing him how good their ramen is.”

Tae raised his eyebrows, “So it’s a date, then.”

She let out a long sigh, placing a hand on her face. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It could be a date. But it also couldn’t be…it wasn’t really clear.”

Her father looked intrigued as he took another sip of his coffee, “Who brought it up?”

She looked out the window, “I did.”

Even though she wasn’t looking at him, Mei could see he had a cheeky expression on his face.

“Do you like this boy?” he asked, “Because when you met him you said-”

“I know what I said,” she responded, as if the words were so hard to say they were being dragged out of her mouth. “I was kinda wrong.”

“You know what you need to do?” Tae said then, giving her a frank look. She turned back to him expectantly. “You need to D.T.D.”

Mei rose an eyebrow at him in confusion.

“Define the date.”

And here she thought he was being serious for a whole second. “Dad!”

He was grinning, “Come on Pumpkin, if you were the instigator, how did you not make it clear you were asking him out?”

She started fiddling with her mug, “I don’t know, it was a last second decision and I panicked. I made it sound as casual as possible, but now I don’t know what it is…”

Hyunwoo would probably laugh for the next five years if he heard that this was what had been keeping her so occupied all morning. Good thing he was asleep.

Tae shrugged, “Well I suppose you could wait until it happens and just see if it has a ‘date’ vibe? Is that a thing?”

She was tapping her fingers on the mug, “What if he doesn’t think it’s a date and then it really feels like a date? What if he doesn’t want it to be a date? What if he wants it to be a date but doesn’t think it is and then it gets all awkward because he thinks that I think it isn’t a date?”

Tae blinked at her. After a moment of silence, he said, “I thought you were better at this by now.”

“With what practice?” Mei asked with a laugh, “The last date I went on was a disaster.”

“Was that the guy that tried to serenade you in the middle of a restaurant?” Tae asked.

She closed her eyes in embarrassment, “Yes it was, and I don’t like to think about it.”

Tae couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, that was great.”

“Shut up.”

...

Hoseok was wiping all the dust off his bookshelf when Siri spoke up from her spot above the coffee table. _“Minhyuk’s here,”_ she told him helpfully. _“Shall I let him in?”_

He grinned as he turned to face the ball of light, “Nah, let him sit outside for a while,” he joked.

Siri’s colours changed a few times, _“I do not understand why you would want to do that,”_ she responded.

Laughing, Hoseok waved a hand at her, “I was kidding, let him in.”

When the door opened, Minhyuk bounded in with all the energy of a puppy. Hoseok couldn’t wait to flog all that energy out of him at the gym.

“So, what’s the latest goss?!” he demanded.

Hoseok raised an eyebrow at him, “Of what?”

Minhyuk raised his hands as if it should have been obvious, “Of the past! You said you would give me updates.” He plonked himself down on the couch, waiting expectantly for Hoseok’s so called update.

“Oh, right…” he wandered over to the side of the room where his kitchen was, opening the fridge to grab some water. “Not much I suppose. The grading was actually really fun, and the kids were adorable.” He almost didn’t mention it, but he then added quickly, “I’m also hanging out with Mei tomorrow.” He tried to make it sound as casual as possible, but in his mind, it was the complete opposite.

Minhyuk sat up straight, “Tomorrow? But you don’t have Kendo tomorrow…”

Hoseok smiled sheepishly, turning away from Minhyuk as he filled two glasses. “Yeah, she offered to show me this really cool ramen place, so…”

When he turned back to Minhyuk, he was met with a raised eyebrow. “Is this…a date?” he asked.

“N-no, it’s not like that,” he tried to assure his friend. “She just heard that I like ramen and-”

“Are you sure?” Minhyuk pressed, “Because to me that sounds a lot like a date.”

Hoseok handed him the glass of water and didn’t respond.

Minhyuk tried again, “Was it specified?”

Glancing to the side, Hoseok shrugged, “Well, no, but-”

His friend was grinning, “It’s totally a date.”

“It’s not a date!” Hoseok threw back.

Minhyuk looked him in the eye, raising a finger to point at him as if he could never be surer of something. “But you want it to be,” he stated. Even if the man hadn’t quite realised it himself yet, Minhyuk was onto something. Since hearing about Hoseok’s new friends in the past, Minhyuk had been paying close attention to his recap stories; never in his life had he spoken about a girl with such a tender tone to his voice.

Hoseok was aware that his ears were growing warm. He tried to ignore it.

“Are you gonna help me decide what to wear or not?”

Minhyuk was grinning as he stood up, “Lead the way, Romeo.”

...

Mei looked at her watch as she quickly shuffled along the footpath. This whole thing had been her idea, and she was going to be late. Why, oh why, did this have to happen to her?

Granted, it was only five to ten minutes later than she’d suggested, but she felt bad because she couldn’t even text Wonho to give him a heads up. She hated to keep people waiting.

When she came around the corner and approached the dojo hurriedly, she spotted a figure leaning against the wall. When she was close enough, she called out his name, and he turned.

And by all things holy was he breathtaking.

While Mei usually saw him dressed in his kendo uniform or a tracksuit, with messy hair that hung over his eyes, today he looked completely different. His hair was styled away from his eyes that were highlighted with eye shadow, and he was dressed in a pair of black jeans with a white t-shirt and stylish jacket. The jeans hugged his toned legs, the neck of the shirt showed off his collarbone, and the eye shadow accented his features in a way that was nothing less than stunning. 

Mei suddenly felt so much better about the amount of time she'd spent in front of the mirror before. She had to remind herself to function like a normal person when she walked up to him, and he gave her a smile.

“Hey,” he said casually.

She had been meaning to apologise for her tardiness, but instead the sentences she’d been practicing in her head disappeared and all that was left was, “Your hair is different.”

He looked surprised by her comment, reaching up to his fringe that was pushed up and to the side. “Oh, uh, well I just-”

She realised he was about to comb it out with his fingers, and she quickly held a hand up, “No, no, I mean good different!” He stopped, staring at her curiously. “I Like it, it’s nice to see your forehead,” she explained lamely.

Oh man, was it weird to compliment someone’s forehead?

He smiled then as he dropped his hand, glancing down bashfully, “Thank you.” It made Mei relax again. Phew.

“Come on,” she said then, nodding over her shoulder before she could feel any more awkward, “Tsuyaki’s is just around the corner.”

He nodded happily and fell into step beside her as they headed over to the ramen house. It hadn’t been the smoothest of starts, but she hoped that soon enough they would fall into their usual chatting without it feeling awkward. The whole issue of this being a date or not had been messing up her head, but now that she was here she decided to just go with the flow. Whether it was or not, she was going to make sure it was a fun evening. This was Mei telling herself to freaking relax, you idiot.

Tsuyaki’s was relatively busy, but they managed to grab two seats by the window and started chatting over what to order. Sitting side by side, she couldn’t help but notice how broad his shoulders were, as he leaned across to look at the menu that sat between them.

“Any suggestions?” he asked, his eyes landing on her.

Worried that she’d been caught staring at his shoulder of all things, she shuffled in her seat, looking back down at the menu. “Uh, usually I get one of these…” she pointed to a few things, and he nodded. “Do you have any favourites?” she asked.

Wonho shrugged, “Anything, really. You pick something,” he suggested with a smile.

Mei rose an eyebrow, “Are you sure?”

He was giving her one of his cheeky but genuine looks, “I trust you.”

She smiled as she looked back down at the menu, “Uh oh, pressure,” she joked. She had to make sure to pick something great as she’d already talked up this place.

After they ordered and had gotten some drinks, they fell into comfortable conversation, which Mei was relieved about. It was so easy to talk to Wonho. He had such a friendly personality that he could make conversation about practically anything. Mei guessed that he must have had lots of friends all with different types of interests just because he was so easy to get along with.

Once the food arrived, being passed over to them from the kitchen, Wonho looked at his bowl with heart eyes. Mei almost laughed.

“It tastes as good as it looks,” she assured as she grabbed them both a pair of chopsticks. Thankfully for her, he’d dug in straight away and had visibly enjoyed it.

“Good choice,” he said to her over a mouthful of noodles, “This is delicious.”

“I told you,” she said happily, “Tsuyaki’s is the best there is.”

After a few minutes of silence from two happy eaters gulping down their ramen, Mei decided she should slow down or she’d give herself a stomach ache.

“You haven’t told me much about your job,” she commented, turning her head towards him.

Wonho then appeared to choke on the ramen he was eating and started coughing. She felt bad for interrupting his eating and pushed her glass of water towards him. He took it gratefully and after drinking the water, he managed to stop coughing.

“Sorry,” he said finally, pushing the glass back towards her. “There’s not much to tell, I guess.”

Mei thought for a moment, “Well, you said you work with mechanics, right? Is it like car mechanics, or…?”

He was looking down at his bowl, pushing the noddles around with his chop sticks. He was glad that she wanted to know more about him, but it put him in an awkward spot when she was asking about things she wasn’t supposed to know. He needed to be careful with what he said.

“Lots of things, really. Whatever’s in demand. My uh, my boss takes on all sorts of projects.”

Mei’s eyebrows peaked in interest, “Oh that’s right, you’re an apprentice, aren’t you?” he nodded. “Your boss must be really knowledgeable. Do you enjoy it?”

Now that wasn’t a question that was really thrown around in Hoseok’s time. It didn’t matter if you enjoyed your job or not, so long as you did it. It was a little strange watching Mei and Hyunwoo choosing their career and studying things they genuinely enjoyed, as when he’d been in highschool, he’d been given a path and that was it. He envied them for that.

“Uh, my boss isn’t the best mentor,” he decided to say. “But it’s alright.”

Thankfully, the conversation steered away from his work and they continued chatting comfortably. Hoseok was enjoying spending time with Mei probably a little too much, but he wasn’t paying attention to that. He just ate his ramen, and unknowingly smiled at every little thing she did.

After they’d finished eating, he excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Mei pulled out her phone to check the time. The evening was still young. They hadn’t made any plans further than this, but she didn’t want it to end here. How do you say, ‘Let’s spend more time together’ without actually saying it?

When Wonho returned, he grabbed his jacket off the chair and said to her, “So, what else is there to do around here?”

Mei looked up at him and then smiled as the relief flooded through her. “Lots of things,” she said as she stood from her chair.

He nodded towards the door, “Care to show me?” he asked with a charming smile.

 _Who wouldn’t,_ Mei thought to herself, as she stepped up beside him and they headed out of the restaurant. “Sure.”


	9. Their Bet

The evening air was cool but not cold, which Mei was thankful for, as her and Wonho walked side by side along the footpath. Despite the slight awkwardness at the start, their little outing was going well. She’d had a good meal and still had good company, so she was very happy.

Until she realised something.

She stopped in her tracks, “Oh my god,” she said suddenly, grabbing his arm to make him stop also.

He turned to her with a questioning look, “What is it?”

She turned panicked eyes to him, “We didn’t pay! We just walked right out of Tsuyaki’s!” She glanced behind her, half convinced there would be a Japanese man bolting down the road after them, cursing them for doing a runner.

Wonho didn’t seem anywhere near as worried, though. “Oh, but we did,” he said simply, trying to usher her along. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“We did?” she asked incredulously, having a very good memory of never pulling out her bank card. When she saw the half restrained smug look on his face though, she figured it out.

Her eyebrows shot up, “You paid?!”

He glanced to the side, that smile still on his face. “Maybe.” He was so close to getting away with it, too.

She finally managed to start walking again, despite this surprise, and Hoseok fell into step beside her again. “When?” she demanded.

“The only time I left my seat,” he responded easily, hands in pockets as he walked. “Really, you should have been paying more attention,” he teased. She was speechless for a moment, which was adorable. He watched her go to say something, and then stop, and then chew on her lip, and then try to talk again, only to huff out a breath of air.

He was lucky that he’d remembered to get cash out before he’d warped, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to pay at all– his bank card would have been useless here after all. Thank goodness money wasn’t something that had changed in the last thirty years.

“That’s not fair,” she muttered, folding her arms.

Hoseok had to supress the urge to chuckle, and he even turned his head away, biting his lip to stop the stupid smile he wanted to make. He’d never seen her sulk before, and he could not say he had been prepared for just how cute it was.

“I think it is,” he said finally, managing a cheeky smile as he glanced sideways at her.

She met his gaze for a moment, before huffing and looking forwards again. This time he did chuckle.

“Don’t laugh,” she said then, still looking forwards, “I’m annoyed at you.”

There was that stupid smile he’d been trying to hold back before. “Oh really?” he asked.

“Yes really.”

“Then what can I do to make you not annoyed at me?” he asked.

“Hmm…” she made a show of thinking for a moment, before she stopped. Hoseok had been looking at her, but he then saw that she was looking at the place she had stopped in front of. It was an arcade.

She turned to him with a grin, “How competitive are you?”

He met her grin with one of his own, “Enough to know that I’ll kick your ass at air hockey.”

Mei laughed, and they both turned and walked into the arcade, their previous conversation completely forgotten. Now, a silent challenge had been raised, and they walked straight towards the air hockey table.

As they walked through the arcade, Hoseok was looking around at all the games, trying not to look too surprised. These would all be considered vintage in his time, and hard to get a hold of, but here they were everywhere!

He was buzzing with excitement when they reached the game, and he searched for the puck, before placing it in front of him. He looked up and met Mei’s gaze across the table. 

He was still so happy that she enjoyed his company enough to want to spend time with him outside of the dojo. Seeing her smiling in any circumstance always managed to make him smile, but right now she was standing across from him, a large grin on her face and a competitive spark in her eyes. He needed to take a moment just to breathe; she was so beautiful.

Mei raised an eyebrow, “What?” she asked.

Hoseok was amazed at how smoothly he was able to answer, “I was just thinking,” he began, an idea coming to him. “That we should make this more interesting.”

She looked interested, “Yeah? How?”

His grin returned then, “Whoever loses the most amount of games…pays for ice cream,” he suggested. He remembered seeing the gelato place just outside before they’d walked in – it would make a good wager, as well as give them something else to do once they were done.

Mei thought about it for a short moment. “That sounds good to me,” she said, before reaching out across the table, “You have a deal.”

He met her half way and they shook hands. “May the best player win.”

It was with a laugh from Mei and a grin from Hoseok, that their game of air hockey started.

The puck was smashed across the table from both sides, as they each tried to attack and defend at the same time. Mei was making wide arm strikes, trying to catch him off guard with angular shots, while Hoseok held his striker near himself, relying on the rebound.

Neither of them had managed to get a shot in for a little while, until the machine released the dozens of mini pucks, sending the game into chaos.

Hoseok was yelling as he tried to hit them all away, and Mei was laughing as she screeched and shot them all in his direction.

As any game of air hockey went, it was a mixture of laughter, screeching, and humorous cursing, but in the end, there could only be one winner.

When the last of the mini pucks shot past Mei’s defences and scored Hoseok his final point, breaking their tie, he threw his hands into the air. “Yeah!”

She was laughing in her defeat as she slumped on the table, whining about her loss. “Nooooo…”

When Mei looked up to meet Wonho’s grin, she could see just how proud of himself he was. “You won’t be so lucky next time.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said happily, before they moved onto their next challenge. They ended up over at the racing games, getting settled into the seats as music blasted from behind their heads.

They had to pose for the camera for the photo that would be shown above their cars, and Mei laughed at the face that Wonho pulled. He claimed that it would be a good distraction when he overtook her.

Engines revving, their race started with a screech of tyres, leaving all the computer opponents far behind. They were head to head practically the entire race. Wonho would overtake Mei, and then Mei would overtake Wonho, and then they would ram into each other and fight for the lead again.

Every time Mei got in front, it wasn’t for long. In the few laps they’d done, Wonho had managed to figure out the perfect way to use the breaks to slip past her on the corners. They were approaching the finish line on the last lap.

She wasn’t going to lose.

As they hit the final corner, she made a desperate move. Driving one handed, she quickly reached over to jerk Wonho’s steering wheel to the side.

Having not been prepared for such a move, his car steered straight into a wall. “Hey!” he said in complaint, as Mei started laughing. He reached out to give her a shove, “That’s cheating!”

He’d tried to catch up to her, but it was already too late, and she crossed the finish line in first place.

Hoseok’s jaw was at the floor as he turned to Mei who was laughing in triumph. “You little-!”

She’d instantly jumped up from her seat to dart away as he reached for her, and he stood up to give chase.

He followed the sound of her laugh as Mei bolted through the maze of games, running from the ‘furious’ man who was laughing behind her.

“Come back here you little cheater!”

The chase ended when Mei made a wrong turn and reached a dead end, and Hoseok managed to catch up to her. Before she had even turned around, he’d just grabbed her in a bear hug from behind and lifted her off the ground.

She squeaked in surprise, and could hear him laughing still, his deep voice near her ear. “That wasn’t fair,” he said in complaint, as she kicked her legs around. She was just chuckling, and he put her down.

It wasn’t until she’d turned to look at him that he realised what they were doing. He hadn’t acted like this in a long, long while, and it reminded him of a time before he’d been burdened with a forced career path and the loss of his mother.

This playful teasing, the chase, all of it reminded him of school kids when they were flirting.

And that’s when he noticed that this felt exactly like a date.

Hoseok could just hear Minhyuk’s voice in his head from the other day, but he didn’t really care at this point.

He loved it.

.

The rest of the games were completed with minimal cheating, and while they were head to head with their wins, in the end Mei was victorious. To Hoseok, this made a lot of sense, as she had more practice than he did, so he was happy to let her have it.

When they walked out to get their ice cream though, Mei jumped in before he could pay for it.

"You paid for dinner, the least I can do is put in for this,” she said as explanation.

He quirked an eyebrow, “Even after our deal?” he asked.

She smirked, “Consider it pity for kicking your ass.”

They were laughing as they left the gelato place and began to walk down the street again. The streetlights lit their path as they silently ate their ice cream, a nice peaceful air between them in comparison to their competitiveness before.

It was nice to wind down after the energy spent yelling and running around earlier, so they found themselves at the park just down the road, seated on a bench as they watched the clouds roll by overhead.

Hoseok had finished his ice cream, but Mei was still going with hers as a breeze swept past, causing her to shiver.

“Are you cold?” he asked her.

She glanced at him, wishing she had been smart enough to bring a cardigan. “Only a little,” she answered. If it weren’t for the ice cream, she would have been fine. He proceeded to take off his jacket, and she held up a hand, “Oh no, you don’t need to-”

“Take it,” he said sternly, holding the jacket out to her. “I know two people who would have my head if you got sick while out here with me.”

He knew that would convince her, and he smiled knowingly as she took the jacket and threw it over her shoulders, murmuring her thanks.

As she finished her ice cream, Hoseok looked around and realised that he recognised this place. The dojo was just a short walk from here. If someone had been sitting on this very bench back in September, they would have witnessed Mei and Hoseok running into each other. He found it amusing that they’d managed to find their way back to the very place they had met.

The silence had been comfortable, and well needed after all the energy spent before, but it was only a matter of time before somebody spoke. In the end it was Mei, turning to him with a curious look as she asked him something out of the blue.

“What was your mother like?”

He glanced at her in surprise, having not expected such a question. She was looking at him with simple curiosity, having not heard anything about his mother other than the fact that she had died.

He gave her a small smile, before turning his head to look up at the clouds. “She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. I never knew anybody as kind, or as brave as she was. She took everything on with 100% effort, and always put others before herself. Even after she fell ill, she was more worried about me than her own bloody health.”

“When was that?” Mei asked.

He thought for a moment, “We noticed something wasn’t right sometime when I was fifteen. It was a few months later that she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I spent the later of my teenage years looking after her, but she kept trying to tell me to go back to school.” He shook his head, “She wanted to make sure I still had a chance at a good future.”

Mei was sitting silently as he spoke, watching his eyes that were staring unfocused at a spot somewhere in front of him. 

“It was just after my nineteenth birthday that she passed away,” he said finally, his hands clasping in front of him. He could remember the day all too well, his mother telling him not to worry about her protruding cheekbones or shaking hands. She wanted him to remember her as she was before, always so full of life. Even on that last day though, she’d still been smiling.

That was one thing that Hoseok admired about her the most. Even after everything she had been through, losing her husband and raising a child on her own and then falling ill herself, she was always, always smiling.

“I miss her,” he found himself saying as he stared blankly at the trees.

In the next moment, Mei had shuffled over, and moved to rest her head on his shoulder. When he turned his own head towards her, Hoseok was comforted by the smell of her lavender shampoo.

“I’m sorry you lost her,” she murmured.

He could feel his heartbeat picking up and hoped that she couldn’t hear it. After a few moments of deliberation, he gently dropped his head to rest on top of hers. “Thank you.”

It had been a small gesture, but now instead of just the sadness that had reached his heart while talking about his mother, he was filled with all sorts of emotions.

He wanted to put his arm around her. He wanted to hold her against his side and press his lips to the top of her head. He wanted to stay here with her for as long as he could.

Hoseok wasn’t sure just how that thought lead to the next, but one moment he was sitting there, peacefully enjoying Mei’s company and the warmth her presence provided, and the next, his mind was in shambles.

He’d thought of Siri, and the warning she had given him some weeks ago.

“These people are from a time where you do not exist yet,” she had told him.

He’d never been bothered by that before, but now the thought ignited fear. He knew all along he wasn’t supposed to be here, but he’d been okay with that before. Somewhere along the way though, his intentions had changed.

When this was just about kendo, he hadn’t thought he was doing anything wrong, but now…

Now he was on a date with a girl, thirty years in the past, where he didn’t belong. As he’d told Siri, he’d always had the intention to stop time warping eventually and return the watch to the federation.

But right now? He never wanted to leave.

His pulse was picking up again, but now it was for a different reason. He glanced at the old quartz watch on his wrist – that wasn’t so old in this time – and did a double take. He needed to go.

It took a lot of difficulty for him to voice this, but when he did Mei lifted her head from his shoulder, taking the warmth with her.

They stood from the bench and turned to face each other. Mei was sad that the night was ending, but so happy about their time spent together, and Hoseok was fighting between five different emotions.

“Thank you for letting me show you the ramen place,” Mei said lamely, glancing down for a moment.

He couldn’t help the warm smile that he gave her, then. “Thank you for showing me.”

He felt so unbalanced in that moment. Her smile made him happy, but at the same time, there was fear swimming around in his gut. He’d gotten attached to this girl, here, thirty years in the past. This wasn’t his reality. But it was hers, and she obviously had similar inclinations towards him. He was lying to her by doing all of this. Before, he’d thought that was he was doing was harmless, but now…it was the opposite.

He looked at her smile, and it hurt. She had no idea.

He was such an idiot.

Mei then realised she still had his jacket on, and went to take it off to return it, but he held up a hand to stop her,

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, letting her keep it for her trip home. “I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

Despite the way his mind was panicking, he managed to give her another warm smile to not let it show.

The look on her face then was a cute, ‘I should have known’ roll of the eyes, but she kept the jacket, and murmured, “Thank you.”

The streetlight was illuminating her face with a soft yellow glow, and when the breeze blew past again, it lifted her hair so that it fell back over her shoulders.

Even with all those thoughts floating through his head, and the uneasiness in his gut, there was only one thing his mind could focus on.

He really wanted to kiss her.

Mei had noticed that he appeared to be deep in thought about something and watched him shift from one foot to the other. She smiled, and stepped forwards, watching his eyebrows rise slowly as she placed a hand on his shoulder, and then pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

When she pulled back, she could see that his ears were red, and tried not to chuckle. “Thanks again for a fun night,” she said with a dazzling smile, before they finally parted ways. As she began to walk home, still wearing Hoseok’s jacket that smelt just like him, she couldn’t remove the smile from her face.

That was definitely a date.

.

Minhyuk was standing in Hoseok’s apartment, having just seen his friend disappear as he warped back to 2017 for his date with Mei. It was strange that he would return in only a second, having spent hours away, but at least it meant that Minhyuk didn’t need to do any waiting.

Just as expected, his friend reappeared as fast as he’d left. Minhyuk had instantly run over, “How did it go? Tell me everything!”

Having known where in the apartment he would return to, Hoseok just took two steps forward and collapsed onto his bed face first.

Minhyuk tilted his head in confusion as he looked down at his friend. “What are you doing? Did you embarrass yourself? Your ears are bright red.”

“No,” was the muffled reply he got.

Minhyuk rolled his eyes and stepped forwards to annoy an answer out of him. With every word he spoke, he punched Hoseok’s butt with a closed fist. “Tell. Me. What. Happened.”

“Nothing happened.”

“That’s a lie, you are several shades redder than usual,” he pointed out. “Now, talk to me already, it can’t have been that bad.”

With a long sigh, his friend finally pulled his face out of the pillow and sat up. “She just kissed me on the cheek,” he said.

Minhyuk furrowed his eyebrows, “And why do you look so miserable about that?!”

“Because,” he said, his eyes moving over to the ball of light above the coffee table, “Siri was right.”

Minhyuk turned around to look at the A.I. “I tend to do that,” she said.

When he looked back at his friend, Minhyuk asked for an explanation by raising an eyebrow.

Being the dramatic man that he was, Hoseok sighed again.

“I have to tell her.”


	10. Her Eyes

The next time that Hoseok visited the dojo, he had two things on his mind regarding Mei.

1\. Something that he wanted to tell her.

2\. Something that he needed to tell her.

He wanted to tell her how he felt. He wanted to tell her how her smile brightened his day and how her kiss had made his heart race.

He wanted to tell her so many things.

But he needed to tell her who he really was; where he was from. No matter how much he wanted to tell her everything else, this took priority. She needed to know the truth.

She hadn’t been there when he’d first arrived, which both disappointed and relieved him. He’d gotten used to seeing her smiling face at the desk when he arrived.

By the time him and Hyunwoo had started their training, his mind was still buried in going over what he was going to say. He was so nervous, he couldn’t focus. He kept forgetting steps in the kata, and screwing it up, but Hyunwoo was always incredibly patient with him, which was a blessing.

It was obvious that his mind was elsewhere, and Hyunwoo was aware of it, but he kept going through the steps with Wonho, one at a time until he got it right. He seemed to be doing a little bit better, right up until Mei appeared.

She had darted around the edge of the training room to get to the storage room, staying quiet as she didn’t want to interrupt their lesson.

Usually, when this happened, Wonho would glance in her direction just out of instinct, and continue his movements, but today, he stared after her retreating back for a few seconds. When she reappeared, carrying a box in her hands, she met his gaze across the hall and smiled. Hoseok didn’t know if he was imagining it, but it didn’t look like her usual smile – there was more to it. Something about the way her gaze landed on him just made the breath leave his lungs.

Hyunwoo watched the exchange, and saw the look Wonho gave her in return, before they finally returned to their training.

They’d done a few more moves before Hyunwoo spoke up. “Something on your mind?” he asked.

Wonho glanced up at him, and then to the side. “I’m going to tell her,” he murmured.

Going into the next move, Hyunwoo raised an eyebrow curiously, “About the watch?” He nodded, and Hyunwoo gave him a small smile. “I’m glad.” 

“I don’t know how she’s going to take it,” Wonho said then. “I left it too long.”

Nu chuckled in good humour, “You sure did.”

They managed to get through the rest of their session without too many hiccups, though Hoseok made quite a few blunders with his mind occupied with the impending conversation he needed to have with Mei. By the time they were wrapping up, he was relieved that the disaster training session was over, but was also ten times more nervous.

Just after he’d pulled his breast plate off, turning to head towards the locker room, Hyunwoo stopped him by grabbing his wrist. Hoseok looked back at him curiously.

Nu glanced in the direction of the front area where Mei would have been, before saying quietly, “Can I ask you something?”

Hoseok turned to face him fully, as Nu let go of his wrist. “Yeah, go for it.”

Hyunwoo met his gaze for a moment, before he asked his question. “Do you have feelings for Mei?”

Having not expected that to be his question, Hoseok’s surprise was obvious. His lips had parted, and eyebrows raised, as he glanced towards the front area as well for a moment. Hyunwoo was standing in front of him, patiently awaiting his answer.

He looked down for a moment. “Yeah.”

There was no major reaction from Hyunwoo. He just nodded. “Okay. Thanks for being honest.”

Hoseok nodded and paused when he noticed that Nu wanted to say something else but looked to be trying to figure out how to phrase it.

“I’m not going to…meddle or anything, but…” Nu thought about his words carefully, before his gaze met Hoseok’s again. “Please don’t hurt her.”

For the second time in the span of a few minutes, Hoseok had been surprised. He really shouldn’t have been though, he knew how much Hyunwoo cared about Mei. It was completely expected that he would ask such a thing.

He gave the man the sincerest look he could manage, and it matched his words. “You know that’s the last thing I would ever want to do.”

Hyunwoo seemed pleased with his answer and gave him a small smile. “I know,” he said, before giving him a pat on the shoulder as he walked past, and out of the training room.

Hoseok had taken a few deep breaths to calm his raging mind before following.

He didn’t always take a shower after training, but today he needed it. He turned the cold tap on full and put his head under the water, hoping it would help with his nerves.

He couldn’t believe how much this was affecting him. It felt like he was about to do something crazy like jump out of a plane from the way his heart was pounding.

But no matter how scared he was, he was going to do it. She needed to know. As soon as he got out, he was going to tell Mei. He had to do it now.

When he had emerged from the showers, throwing his gear into his bag, he hadn’t been able to hear Mei and Hyunwoo talking outside. He wondered where she could have been.

“Wonho?”

When he heard that voice, he jumped in surprise. Having been leaning over his bag, he jerked his head up, and hit the top of the locker.

He’d grunted in pain and was holding his head with one hand when he turned and saw her surprised look.

“Sorry!” she said, holding her hands up in an adorable gesture of apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?”

He gave her a reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think the locker won this round, though,” he joked. He was amazed at how even his voice sounded. “What’s up?”

She chuckled, before her expression changed to one of concern. “I just, happened to notice you don’t seem much like yourself today,” she said carefully. He couldn’t believe it – they’d barely seen each other, and she’d already picked up on it. “Is everything alright?”

There it was. This was his moment to speak. She’d given him an opening and everything, he just had to say it. He was silent for a moment.

Tell her, his mind pushed.

He looked at her, meeting her gaze, that was trained on him patiently. He opened his mouth.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

Mei blinked in surprise, having been completely caught off guard. A moment later, she smiled. “Thank you,” she said earnestly. A compliment was the last thing she had expected as a response to her question, but she was obviously flattered.

“You said that nobody ever mentions your eyes, because they’re like your mother’s,” he continued. “I like the way that they look in the sun.”

She was staring at him with such intrigue, “And what’s that?” she asked.

“Golden,” he said. “It’s gorgeous.”

Her smile was wide and bashful as she glanced down for a moment. “I’m glad to hear that.”

That smile was so beautiful, he couldn’t stop staring at her, as more words came tumbling out. “And your smile,” he added. “I love your smile.”

He was supposed to be telling her the truth, but the truths that were coming out of his mouth weren’t the ones he was supposed to say. It was like the messages being sent from his brain were malfunctioning half way and all he could do was keep spilling these sentences.

She didn’t know what to do with such compliments and had bit her bottom lip as that smile continued to grace her features.

“You’re being very charming today,” she commented, not sure what else to say.

Taking that as a good sign, he stepped forwards. “I love that little laugh you make when you knock me over,” he murmured, and she modestly glanced down for a moment.

He lifted an arm to rest his weight against the lockers, his eyes never leaving hers. She didn’t even flinch as his palm rested flat against the locker beside her.

She murmured a response then, her head tilting up ever so slightly. “I love that determined grin of yours when you get back up.”

He was elated, “I love the way you chew on your lip when you’re nervous.”

She was just about to do so but forced herself not to. “I love the way your lips curve up at the sides when you smile.”

It made him smile wider, and she did, too. “Yeah, that one,” she said.

He couldn’t manage to say anything else. Whatever had been occupying his mind before was completely gone. All he knew was that Mei was standing here, smiling at him beautifully, and somehow, she was so much closer than she had been before. He could see the curve of her eyelashes, and the feint freckles on her nose.

He found himself moving, ever so slowly, even closer. So close, that he could feel her breath on his skin.

Mei was standing so still, but her heart was pounding. It was probably reverberating through her back against the locker. She glanced at his lips.

And that was all the invitation he needed.

He moved to close the gap.

“Mei, are you in here? Your-”

The sound of the door swinging open, along with Hyunwoo’s voice made them both jump as they spun away from each other. Nothing could have prevented the situation from looking as obvious as it was, and they knew that, but the reaction was instant, and now they were standing there awkwardly, avoiding looking at each other.

The man by the door had realised his mistake straight away, cutting himself off mid-sentence. After a moment, “Your dad called,” he finished. He had Mei’s phone in his hand, having picked it up from the front desk where she’d left it.

He wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. Nu had thought he could have been interrupting something, but what he was expecting was far different to this. As in Wonho getting punched in the face. Not…whatever that was.

“Oh. Great,” Mei managed a response. “I will…call him soon.”

Hyunwoo was about to back out the door, but Wonho had looked at the time and suddenly freaked out.

“Oh crap, I have to go!” he announced, grabbing his bag out of the locker. “I’m sorry, I’ll see you guys later!”

Hyunwoo guessed the apology was mainly aimed at Mei as he dashed out of the locker room, and as soon as he was gone, the girl turned towards him, folding her arms. She looked a little peeved.

“I interrupted something, didn’t I?” he said. He didn’t need to ask. He knew.

Mei walked over to him, and punched him in the arm several times, in time with her words. “YES. YOU. DID.” She punched him once more just because she could. “Butthead.”

He chuckled, “Sorry. There’s always next time.”

She muttered something incoherently as she walked out of the locker room, and he followed. “Did he tell you anything?” he asked curiously, trying to sound nonchalant.

Mei’s pulse still hadn’t slowed down. “He gave me a lot of compliments,” she said.

“And?” he prompted.

She turned to him with a deadpan expression, “I missed the and, you bastard.” She huffed and walked over to the front desk, grabbing her bag. “I’m going home, I’ve done enough here today. You can lock up.”

.

Now halfway down the street, Hoseok had glanced around before checking the watch to see how much time he had. He’d spotted the time on the clock in the locker room, but when he looked at the watch, he realised it had been wrong. He still had a few minutes to spare.

He spun around. He could see the dojo still, and by some stroke of luck, he spotted a familiar figure walking out.

He didn’t even think, he just ran.

She hadn’t been able to see him from where she was, so Hoseok ran back down the path towards the dojo, towards Mei’s retreating back. He just couldn’t leave things how they’d been back there, there was no way he was going to let this opportunity pass.

If she’d been able to hear the pounding footsteps behind her, she didn’t pay it any mind. That is, until he called out to her.

“Mei!”

She stopped, and then turned around in surprise. “Wonho?” she said, baffled as he ran up to her. “What are you-”

He didn’t even let her finish her sentence. The moment he was close enough, he’d reached out to place a hand on her cheek, before making the distance between them non-existent.

She hadn’t even had the chance to raise her eyebrows in surprise, because one moment he’d been running towards her, and the next, he’d kissed her.

She hadn’t known what to do at first. Her shock had been apparent in the way her whole body froze, her mind coming to a complete halt.

Before Hoseok could grow worried he’d made the wrong move though, she’d relaxed, breathing a soft sigh through her nose as she lifted a hand to place gently on his chest, kissing him back with just as much fervour.

As she smiled against his lips, he was filled with joy. He wondered if she could feel his pounding heartbeat through the material of his shirt. He lifted his other hand to cup her cheek, before threading fingers through her hair, as she placed her other hand on his bicep, sending warmth up his shoulder and right through his chest.

Her lips were so soft, and her kiss was so dazzling. He’d foolishly imagined this moment before, in a fleeting daydream while at work, but nothing could compare to the real thing. From the way she followed his movements effortlessly when he turned his head, to the way her hand softly held the fabric of his shirt, every small detail was just perfect.

But he still needed more.

In one swift motion, he moved his hands to securely wrap around her waist, pulling her towards him. It felt like his head was spinning in the most glorious way. Or was that just because he hadn’t taken a moment to breathe properly?

As if she was in-sync with him already, she’d responded to the move by sliding her arms up around his neck, their lips never straying from each other. It was as if she was just as reluctant to let go-even for a moment-as he was.

If they had kissed in the locker room, Mei had thought that it would be slow, tentative, but something about him now gave the vibe of urgency, so there was no room for hesitation. He just held her, and kissed her like he meant it, and she met his movements with her own beautiful spark that made his heart pound even more.

When they finally pulled apart ever so slightly, their breaths mingling in the small space between them, Hoseok smiled so wide he thought his face would break. He would have given anything just to stay here longer, to hold her for longer, but there was nothing he could do.

“Now I really have to go,” he breathed, though he made no effort to move his arms from around her waist.

She was smiling at him, as if this was some strange dream and she was waiting to wake up again, but not wanting to. Knowing he had somewhere to be, her hands moved to rest on his shoulders, “Okay.” She almost asked if she could see him tomorrow, but he was in hurry. She could wait. “See you Thursday?” she asked.

He returned the smile, so warm and beautiful. “See you Thursday,” he murmured. Then, unable to help himself, he leant in to steal one more quick kiss, to which Mei had no complaints about.

When he pulled back, he reluctantly withdrew from her arms, painfully aware of his time limit. He started walking backwards, flashing her one last beautiful smile, before turning and dashing back down the footpath.

Mei stood there for a moment, as his figure disappeared from her sight. She couldn’t believe that had just happened.

Mei had kissed her fair share of boys in her lifetime. She’d had the awkward first kiss, the bored ‘just because we can’ kiss, the stupidly drunk, sloppy kiss…

But Wonho’s kiss…that had been something else entirely.


	11. His Mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've officially run out of pre-prepared chapters, and from this point on I have no idea what updates are going to be like...but I'm hoping to be able to keep it to once a week, if I can stay on top of it (motivation permitting)

His heart was pounding.

It had been before, when Mei had been in his arms, sending his head spinning in the most wonderful way, but now it was for a different reason.

He was out of time. He had under a minute until he warped back, but there were people everywhere. He couldn’t get to his usual spot in time, so he was desperately searching for somewhere-anywhere-that he could hide for just a second to disappear.

His eyes darted around his surroundings as he ran down the street, sweat forming on his forehead. There had to be somewhere that nobody could see him.

The watch hit the thirty second mark, and that’s when he spotted it. A tiny little gap between two buildings, wide enough to walk through, that couldn’t possibly be a thoroughfare.

It was his only choice.

He ran over to the edge of the road, quickly glancing around to make sure there were no cars, before sprinting across, his eyes on the small alley. He was going to make it, he knew it. He’d cut it close, but he was going to make it.

What he hadn’t noticed in his rush though, was the cyclist that had been zooming down the other side of the road at a lightning fast pace. With his eyes set on the small alley, there was no way Hoseok could have noticed.

That is, until they collided.   

Needless to say, as Hoseok was warped back to 2047, sprawled on the floor and writhing in pain, Minhyuk was given quite a shock. He’d been expecting to meet his friend as he had last time, and to be given an informative rundown of how everything had gone with Mei.

Instead, he was going to spend the next several hours at the doctors, trying to care for an injured friend.

As he sat in the waiting room, yet to hear about the extend of the damage, he wondered just how Hoseok had managed to create so much drama in such a small amount of time.

And it was all because of that damn watch.

…

“Hoseok, for the love of god, get out of bed.”

The next day, Minhyuk had walked into the apartment and seen a lump under the covers - a very bad disguise if you asked him. His friend had buried himself under a mountain of blankets, it seemed.

He walked over to the bed, trying to pull the covers off him. “Just because you have a couple injuries does not mean you can mope about for the next six weeks.”

At the end of the previous night, Minhyuk had brought Hoseok back to his apartment with a cast on his arm, stitches in his chin, and a support for his ankle. He’d been given strict instructions on how to care for the torn ligament in his ankle, while the other injuries just took time. This meant though, that he was going to need a break from work, which his boss was not happy about.

When Minhyuk had pulled on the sheets, Hoseok had just held onto them tighter, not letting him pull them off. He sighed in annoyance, “You can’t blame this on the concussion, either!”

The only response he received, was a muffled, “Go away.”

Minhyuk folded his arms, “I helped your sorry ass all the way to the doctors and back, and this is the thanks I get?”

“Please Min,” was the muffled reply, “I’m not in the mood. You know I’m thankful for your help.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Minhyuk sat down on the edge of the bed. Hoseok had given him a summary of what had led to this – including how he’d somehow done a 360 on his original plan of telling Mei the truth, and instead had smooched her. Which, of course, had then lead to him running out of time, and being enough of an idiot to make a cyclist crash into him. And when man vs bicycle, bicycle wins.

“So, you’re an idiot,” he said lightly, “We knew that already. A bit of time off work and you’ll be fine again, there’s no reason to be miserable about it - and don’t tell me that you’re worried about Mei seeing you with those stitches.”

Underneath the blanket, Hoseok was cradling his new cast, with an object in his hand. He’d been holding onto it since he got back from the doctors yesterday, but Minhyuk hadn’t seen it yet. Hoseok pushed back the covers enough so that he could hold his hand out.

 Minhyuk glanced down and saw that he was holding the watch. He hadn’t even noticed it when Hoseok had appeared yesterday, as his injuries had been his first concern.

Now, he saw just why the man appeared to be so upset. The glass was smashed, the case dented, and the hands bent.

“It’s broken,” he muttered. “It’s over, Min.”

Minhyuk’s eyebrows slowly rose, as the realisation hit him.

_It’s over._

If the watch was broken, Hoseok could no longer go to 2017.

A very quiet, “Oh,” was all that Minhyuk could manage.

The watch then disappeared back under the covers, as Hoseok shifted, muttering, “Thanks for visiting but, I think I’m gonna go back to sleep.”

Minhyuk stared at the lump under the blankets and sighed. “Yeah okay,” he responded. “I gotta go to work anyway, but I’ll come back in the evening.” He stood up, about to remind him to take care of his injuries but thought better of it.

Last night as he had been leaving, he’d done that, only to get a tired wave of the hand and Hoseok’s, “Yeah, yeah, I know, ice on for 20 and off for 20, I got it.”

Minhyuk tried to pretend he couldn’t see the discarded ice pack on the kitchen bench as he turned to head for the door, “Please don’t stay in bed all day,” he said.

The only response he got was a muttered, “I’ll think about it.”

When Hoseok heard the door close, he looked at the watch again. It was still showing the last setting he’d had on it: 14th November 2017.  It would probably stay like that forever now, with the smashed glass and dented case. The hands were no longer pointing at any numbers as they were bent out of place, but he’d memorised the time of day he always warped to anyway. Some days he showed up earlier, but that always meant he had to leave earlier.

He stared at it. He felt kind of…numb. He didn’t really know what to do, or what to think.

Okay, that was a lie. He was trying his dang hardest not to think, because he knew where it would lead, and he couldn’t face it. It had crashed down on top of him last night when he discovered that the watch broken, and ever sine he’d just been pushing it down. He didn’t want to think about just what he’d done, what he had ruined.

So, he stayed in his bed, headphones in his ears, and just tried to sleep. Maybe he would wake up and it would all just be one big nightmare.

…

For the next week, Minhyuk’s routine was all the same. Head over to Hoseok’s apartment before work, do a lot of mothering, sigh a lot, and then do it all again after work.

The first few days he didn’t mind. Hoseok was obviously upset, and while he refused to talk about it, he also refused to do practically everything that he was supposed to be doing. Minhyuk was constantly replacing his ice pack and telling him to ‘move god damn it’ but every day he was just in the same place; lying in that freaking bed.

Today, when he appeared in the evening, walking in to see the same lump under the covers, he let out a loud sigh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Siri,” Hoseok mumbled from his spot under the blankets, “I thought I told you not to let him in.”

The A.I. was in her usual place above the coffee table, _“That would be against your best interest,”_ she replied helpfully.

“Against my best interest…” was the muttered response. “You are the worst A.I. ever.”

Minhyuk walked over, ignoring the exchange. “Hoseok, please, you can’t just lie there all day, every day. You need to do something.”

“Like what,” was the mumbled response.

Minhyuk threw his hands into the air, “Anything! Anything at all is better than lying in that god damn bed.” He emphasized his point by pulling at the sheets, and this time Hoseok hadn’t been holding onto them well enough to stop him. Minhyuk just ripped the blankets off and threw them onto the floor. Hoseok just put the pillow over his head.

Minhyuk could clearly see the watch, sitting on the bed beside him.

“I’m here to help, but I’m not going to baby you. I get that you’re upset, but you can’t just mope about forever.” He walked around the bed and pulled off the pillow. “Get up already, I’ve never seen you act so childish.”

Silently, Hoseok did as he was told, as he slowly sat up, rubbing his face tiredly. His eyes then seemed to sit unfocused on some spot in front of him, either as if he were deep in thought or not thinking at all.

Minhyuk knew it was very unlike Hoseok to shut himself off like this. Usually his emotions were very open and he would always share them freely – especially with his best friend – but this kind of behaviour was alien to him.

Minhyuk decided it wasn’t right, and he needed to make him crack. Somewhere under that shell, was his friend, and if the only way to get him to do anything was to smack him over the head, then so be it.

“If you’re not going to talk about it, then get over it already,” Minhyuk snapped unkindly. “Life goes on, and soon enough you’ll be back where you were before and it’ll all be the same again.”

There was a moment of silence. “How can you say that?” Hoseok murmured then, his eyebrows creasing as he continued to stare at nothing.

“Because it’s the truth,” minhyuk replied, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him to his feet. Hoseok put most of his weight onto his healthy ankle. “Now go shower already, you stink.”

Empty eyes finally focused on him, as he murmured. “Why can’t I be miserable?”

“Why _are_ you miserable?” Minhyuk challenged.

“Why?” Hoseok’s eyebrows rose, a dumbfounded expression on his face. It was the most amount of emotion Minhyuk had seen all week. It was like something had clicked, and finally he was a book that opened right up before him. “Alright, I’ll tell you why...”

Minhyuk stood there patiently, as Hoseok finally started talking.

“Because I met the most amazing girl in 2017, proceeded to lie to her for months, and then instead of telling her the truth I fucking kissed her and now because of that, I’m never going to see her again,” he said in summary. “Imagine the irony of that. If I had actually done the right thing for once, I wouldn’t have had this problem. But no, I haven’t done anything the right way since this whole situation started. That is all 100% on me.”

His words sounded harsh, but Minhyuk knew it wasn’t directed at him, not at all.

“It’s not about me though,” Hoseok continued, “It’s about the fact that I would have just disappeared into thin air and she has no idea! I never told her the truth! I was such a god damn coward that I left it so long and then when I was finally going to do it, I just…” kissed her. He’d completely lost sight of his objective because he’d been lost in those eyes, and that was it. How could he have gotten so distracted so easily? Why was he such a fool for her?

“Just…” he ran a hand through his hair, sitting back down on the bed, “Please just let me be miserable.”

Minhyuk gave him a small smile, despite the fact that Hoseok was now looking down at his hands. “You’re allowed to be miserable, Hoseok,” he said, sitting down beside him. “You’ve just got to deal with it the right way. Burying yourself under blankets and avoiding everything is not the way to go about it.”

Slinging an arm over his shoulder, Minhyuk spoke softly, “I’m sorry for being harsh, but you need to talk to me, okay? You can’t shut me out like that.”

Hoseok nodded, turning his head towards his friend. “Okay, I’m sorry, too.”

Minhyuk smiled and gave him an affectionate squeeze. They sat like that for a few moments in silence, comfortable, but not sure what to do next.

“You really like her, don’t you?” Minhyuk asked quietly.

Hoseok sighed, slowly nodding. “I don’t know what to do – there’s nothing I _can_ do.” He looked so lost. “I really wish there was some way I could fix this. Just so she doesn’t get hurt. This wouldn’t be the first time somebody’s disappeared on her…”

He glanced over at Siri, and at the desk behind her, where his tools were still sitting after reprogramming her.

His eyebrows slowly rose. “Wait…maybe I _can_ fix it…”

Minhyuk watched as Hoseok turned and grabbed the watch from the bed, turning it over to see if there was a way to open the case.

“Fix it?” Minhyuk asked, “You don’t know anything about it.”

Hoseok stood then, and started limping his way over to the desk, “That didn’t stop me from fixing Siri.”

_“I was not broken,”_ Siri reminded him helpfully.

“Of course you weren’t,” Hoseok replied, picking up a screwdriver to try and pry the back of the case open. “Siri, give me all of the information you have about these watches.”

_“I’m afraid that information is classified,”_ Siri responded.

Hoseok whirled, “What?”

Minhyuk walked over as Siri explained, _“The Federation has banned the extraction of such information from external sources.”_

He looked confused, “But you’ve already given me information on the watches.”

_“That was information which had been released to the public. I do not have remote access to the more sensitive details.”_

Hoseok made a noise of complaint and turned back to the watch. Maybe he could figure it out himself. It was only a watch, right?

When the case finally came open, he stared. Okay, it may be only a watch, but it was a watch that could warp someone through time, and that apparently required a _lot_ of components. He needed that info.

If only there was a way he could get into-

“Minhyuk!” he suddenly said, spinning around. “You work for the feds!”

He raised a finger, “Technically, everyone works for the feds.”

He waved his hands, suddenly so much more excited than he had been before, “Shut up, you work at the security bureau! With the archives! You have access to all of the Federation’s information!”

Minhyuk suddenly knew where this was going, “Oh no…”

“Siri can’t access that info remotely, but if she can get into the facility she can pose as one of their own units, all you’d need to do is take her to the right place.” Hoseok was acting as if he had struck gold.

“Take her?” Minhyuk asked, turning to where Siri’s unit was, “She’s mounted to the wall, she’s not designed to be moved.”

Hoseok grinned, “Not yet, she’s not.”

Minhyuk gaped as Hoseok limped over with his screwdriver and began to try and take down Siri’s unit. “Why do you always have the most insane ideas?” he asked in bafflement.

_“Am I getting another ‘upgrade’?”_ Siri asked.

Hoseok turned to grin at the ball of light, “It’ll look like a downgrade, but trust me, even you will enjoy this.”

“Will I, though?” Minhyuk asked, crossing his arms. “I can’t break into the facility just to get this information.”

“You won’t be breaking in,” Hoseok assured him. “Just show up to work like you always do and take Siri to the place where the info is kept, she’ll handle the rest.” Minhyuk looked very unsure of this, so Hoseok paused what he was doing, and waved him over, having had enough limping for the time being.

When Minhyuk walked over to stand in front of him, Hoseok put his hands on his friend’s shoulders. “Minhyuk,” he said, looking him in the eye, “I rarely ever ask you for favours, and you know how much this means to me. If I can fix this watch, I can solve everything. After this, I’ll do whatever you want me to, I’ll reprogram your Siri unit, anything. Please, please just do this for me?”

It didn’t take long for Minhyuk to let out a short sigh. “Alright,” he conceded. “But you owe me big time.”


	12. Their Task

_“Hoseok, it’s time for your ankle exercises,”_ Siri reminded, her smooth but clearly automated voice breaking the blissful silence of his apartment.

Having been hunched over his desk, struggling to work on the watch one handed, he let out a deep sigh. “I am going to murder you Lee Minhyuk.”

His friend had agreed to grab the information for him on the condition that he could add things into Siri’s calendar so that Hoseok could stay on top of the things he was supposed to be doing.

Being desperate, Hoseok had agreed.

Little did he know that Minhyuk had told Siri to give him reminders for everything, including eating, showering, and doing the exercises the doctor had given him that he really didn’t want to do.

He rolled his eyes as he remembered Minhyuk’s words from just yesterday, ‘well I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to, you can’t even go to the gym at the moment, so why not do what you can?’

What a question. There was quite the difference between the accomplishment and satisfaction he felt with the burn of muscles on a bench press, as opposed to…twirling your foot in a circle.

 _“Hoseok, it’s time for your ankle exercises,”_ Siri reminded again, like an annoying alarm clock. A very smart, brightly coloured alarm clock.

He turned to the ball of light above the coffee table. “I’m not doing the god damn exercises,” he responded. Even though Siri was now in a more mobile form, he knew that if he threw her into the bathroom that her display wouldn’t disappear. He wondered just how far the signal went. Maybe he could throw it out the window.

Not wanting to entertain the idea, he turned back to the watch. With Minhyuk’s help, he’d successfully pulled it apart, and had spent the last several days flicking through all the information on the watches, displayed on the holo screen on his wall, right next to the clock.

He knew he was probably playing with fire here, having such sensitive information, but really, he’d lit the match as soon as he’d started using the watch.

His only issue was that he couldn’t physically do much without Minhyuk here to help him, having a cast on his arm and all. It was going to drive him mad soon.

He looked at the clock, and then out the window. The sky was slowly growing dark. “Siri, call Minhyuk for me, I want to know why he’s taking so long.”

As she sent the call to his phone, Hoseok watched the wall in front of him light up like the one in his workshop had. After a few moments, he picked up.

“Sorry Hoseokkie, I decided to go straight home today,” Minhyuk said as a way of greeting, giving his friend an apologetic smile.

Hoseok leaned back in his chair, “You really think I don’t recognise the dingy stairwell of my own apartment block?”

Minhyuk looked around himself, “Damn, you got me. I’ll be there in a sec.” 

Hoseok grinned as he heard the footsteps approach the door, and Siri let him in right away. He turned in his chair to greet the man, “Screw you for trying to pull a prank on me, but you’ll have to do better than that.”

“Yeah, it was a weak effort,” Min agreed, walking over. “Now show me your chin! You got the stitches out, didn’t you?”

As soon as he was close enough, Minhyuk had grabbed his face to inspect the damage. It had healed a considerable amount since last week, but still looked a little gross, especially with the holes from the stitches.

“Ew, are you sure it’s not supposed to have a patch or something?” he asked, letting him go.

Hoseok shook his head, “Doctor said it needs to breathe.”

“Does it still hurt?” he’d asked, reaching out towards him again.

Hosoeok batted his hand away, “Only when you touch it!” Minhyuk chuckled. “Now pull up a chair already, we’re nowhere closer to fixing this god damn thing yet.”

As Minhyuk did what he was told, they put their heads together over the watch, as they did every day. Minhyuk had never been involved in anything Hoseok had worked on before, so it was quite fascinating seeing the way he worked, especially on something he didn’t know a lot about.

He would mutter things to himself with words Minhyuk didn’t understand as he flicked through the files, trying to match things up with what he had in front of him. With furrowed brows he’d say things like, ‘hold this’ or ‘screwdriver please’ or ‘do you think it’s talking about this?’

It felt like he was now the apprentice, but he knew next to nothing about what they were doing. He’d picked up small things though working with Hoseok, and despite the constant frustration that emanated from him when they tried to work on the watch, it was enjoyable watching his mind try to work through everything.

They worked on the watch every day. As soon as Minhyuk finished work, feeling relieved that nobody had approached him about stealing sensitive files – borrowing, Hoseok had called it – he would head straight over. It wasn’t that far to walk to the third story of the old warehouse, clambering up the rickety stairs and finding Hoseok bent over the table, muttering curses to himself as he tried to weigh down the watch with his cast. Minhyuk had lost count of the amount of times he’d scolded the man for it when it was supposed to be in a sling instead of being moved around.

Some days were better than others. They would learn something new about one of the components and what importance it had in the workings of the watch and feel accomplished. Other days, not so much.

Minhyuk watched Hoseok limp a little as he’d jumped up to grab something and hobbled back over to the desk.

“Your ankle still hurts,” he commented.

Hoseok leant back over the component they were working on, hair falling over his eyes, “Of course it does, I tore a freaking ligament.”

“You haven’t been doing those exercises,” Min pointed out.

He looked annoyed, “I don’t have time to do the god damn exercises. I go back to work in a few weeks and then this will never get done.”

Minhyuk let go of the piece he’d been holding onto, “You still need to look after yourself.”

“Yes, thank you,” Hoseok grunted in annoyance, “I get the reminders every fifteen minutes.”

Minhyuk turned to him, “Why are you raising your voice at me? I’m just trying to help.”

Hoseok didn’t look at him, continuing to try and pry at the component without Minhyuk’s help. “I’m not raising my voice at you; now can you hold this please.” His voice was strained, as if he were talking through his teeth.

“Really? Cause you sound pissed off at me.”

Hoseok finally looked in his direction, his expression showing the complete opposite of what he was saying, “I’m not pissed off at you!”

“Then why are you yelling?”

Something inside Hoseok snapped then, and he impulsively threw the screwdriver down onto the carpet, “I’m not yelling!”

The thud of the screwdriver could probably be heard from the ground floor. Minhyuk just sat there and raised his eyebrows at the man.

It was like all the pent-up energy just dissipated then, as Hoseok let out a long sigh, burying his face in his hands. “I’m sorry, Min,” he mumbled. “I’m not angry at you.” 

There was a long pause, as Minhyuk sat there, watching his friend falling apart at the seams. He hadn’t seen Hoseok this affected by something since the passing of his mother, but that had been very different.

After a moment, he mumbled through his hands, “I’m angry at myself.”

Minhyuk reached out and placed a hand on his back, “Then talk to me. I told you not to bottle it up.”

Hoseok lifted his hands slightly so he could give the man a sidewards glance. “You’ve already dropped your whole life to help me. I don’t want to burden you any more than I already am.”

Minhyuk threw his head back to look at the ceiling for a short moment. “Hoseok…” he turned to face him head on, grabbing his wrists to pull his hands away from his face so he would look at him properly.

“Do you know why I dropped my whole life to help you? Why I risked my job to get those files for you? Why I put those reminders in Siri’s calendar?”

Hoseok blinked at him, waiting for him to explain.

“Because you are my best friend, you idiot, and whenever I needed you, you were always there for me. So as long as you need it, I will be here. Don’t underestimate me.”

Minhyuk watched as Hoseok’s expression changed from curious, to something else. His brows drew together and lifted, his eyes were wide, and his bottom lip trembled. Before he could say anything sappy and embarrassing, he pulled his friend in for a hug, hands grasping onto his shirt like a lifeline.

“I don’t deserve you,” he muttered, obviously trying to hold back tears.

Minhyuk just smiled and rubbed his back soothingly, “Shut up you sap,” he teased.

He was relieved when Hoseok chuckled then, “You started it.”

Finally, Hoseok let him go, wiping his eyes quickly, as Minhyuk retrieved the screwdriver that had been thrown to the floor. When he sat back down, he grabbed Hoseok’s hand and purposefully placed the tool in his palm. “We’ll fix it,” he said, sounding so sure of himself, even though he wasn’t the one doing the actual fixing. “I promise.”

Hoseok closed his hand around the screwdriver, giving him a smile. “Thank you.”

…

The days went by, and they continued to work on the watch. They shared confusion, frustration, and outright anger as they tried to understand all the components and how they were supposed to work. It was nothing like anything Hoseok had seen before. Nowhere near the simplicity of a normal watch, but not the same kind of complexity of a device like Siri. It messed with his head, but he kept trying. They added their own scrawled notes to the ones on the holo screen, filling up the wall as they linked parts together and focused on how they worked with each other and what their importance was.

Hoseok would scrawl other things that Minhyuk didn’t understand on scraps of paper – little formulas or certain parts of mechanical theory. While some days it felt like they were getting somewhere, other days it felt like they’d achieved nothing at all.

Eventually, they’d managed to get a grasp of almost every component. They’d gone through every single file that the federation had on the watches, and Hoseok could link all of them together.

Except for one.

It was a part that they’d come across last in the files. Not very large, and it didn’t appear to be very complex, but the feds had absolutely no info on it. Just a small blueprint of what it looked like and naming it ‘The X Component’.

“Why X?” Minhyuk had muttered in confusion. It didn’t look like an X.

“Probably an algebra reference,” Hoseok had replied. “X is always the unknown. Considering they’ve got no info on it, it fits pretty well.”

They decided to try and figure out what the deal was with the X component, but their only problem was, they couldn’t find it. They went through every piece of the watch that they could find, but nothing resembled the X component. They’d hit a dead end.

After all the time and effort they’d put into it, they just reached a wall. Once they were certain they couldn’t find the last piece to this frustrating puzzle, Hoseok had thrown his tools at the wall and Minhyuk had slid down in his chair in disappointment.

“Maybe we just need a break,” Minhyuk suggested. It was late, they’d been working for hours, and their brains were fried. “Let’s come back to it tomorrow with fresh minds,” he said, patting Hoseok on the shoulder and standing up.

As Minhyuk had been leaving the building, hoping that Hoseok was resting instead of trying to keep working on the watch, he threw up the hood of his jacket as it began to rain. Few people were around as it was so late, so he quickly shuffled along the footpath, heading to his own home a few blocks away.

When he stopped at an intersection, he thought he was seeing things. Something had caught his attention from the corner of his eye, but when he turned, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just a bunch of parked cars under the streetlights.

Deciding he needed to get some sleep, he shook his head and began to cross the road. Then, he definitely saw something. It was in the middle of the intersection, unmoving.

A shadow. No, a person.

Minhyuk stopped. Why the heck was someone just standing there in the middle of the road? It was so bizarre. He blinked, continuing to walk so he wasn’t weirdly staring at a stranger, but when he glanced back, they were gone.

He blinked at the empty space on the road for a few moments, before picking up his pace again to get out of the rain. He decided that maybe he just really needed some good sleep.

.

Back in the studio apartment, Hoseok was trying not to overthink as he had done a lot of it lately. He’d taken Minhyuk’s advice and stepped away from the watch, deciding to clear his head with a shower before collapsing in bed.

He was halfway through trying to awkwardly tie a plastic bag around his cast in the bathroom, when he heard something. There were noises that sounded through the building all the time from the other residents - bumps and creaks and footsteps and voices - but something about what he heard didn’t match any of those and sounded very close.

Wearily, he slowly walked out of the bathroom, plastic bag still in hand, as he glanced around the room. Everything looked the same as it had before. The mess of tools on the desk, the sheets of his bed thrown back, the stacks of ramen cups on the kitchen bench.

Still, something didn’t feel quite right, and he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Hey Siri,” he said, calling out to the small device that was sitting on the coffee table. A moment later, the ball of light appeared, casting a soft blue glow on the surrounding objects.

_“Yes, Hoseok?”_

“You didn’t notice anything…weird just now, did you?” he asked, looking around. Worst case scenario, someone had managed to scale the building and broken in through his window to steal stuff and was currently hiding under his bed.

Despite the fact that was a) ridiculous because who would want to steal anything from this dingy building and b) impossible because Siri would have alerted him to another presence, it still crossed his mind.

Not to mention, who would climb three stories to break in? Just go for the bottom floor apartments. Duh.

Granted, he did consider that he would have had one of the most valuable possessions in the entire building, but nobody knew that. He hoped.

 _“Your definition of weird could be a variety of things, but no I cannot detect any unusual activity,”_ Siri answered.

He let out a sigh, deciding that he was probably going mad. Underneath his desperation to get the watch fixed, there was a constant paranoia that he was going to be caught in possession of it. Of course, the feds would have no idea unless they went looking. He already filtered down the information that Siri fed back to them, so if they had no reason to find him suspicious then they wouldn’t notice. He forced himself to relax, he just needed to sleep.

As he turned to walk back into the bathroom, he glanced at the desk again, the watch parts half put together and half laying across the desk amongst his tools. He stopped.

Something was different.

Slowly walking over, his eyebrows drew together in amazement.

Sitting on the desk, surrounded by the components they’d worked on for weeks, was something that he was certain had not been there before.

He reached out, mouth agape, and picked it up.

It was the X component.


	13. Their Wait

**16 th November, 2017**

Hyunwoo let out a grateful sigh as he walked out from the training room, having dealt with a handful of extremely excitable kids today. He wasn’t sure if they’d been fed sugar, or if it was just the excitement from the approaching holidays. Either way, he was pooped.

He saw Mei sitting by the front, having been apparently studying at some point, but obviously not now. Her head was propped up on her hand, as she stared at the front door, a content smile on her face.

Looking at the clock, he knew just what she was waiting for, and why she had that look on her face. He almost laughed; she was so easy to read.

“If you keep staring at the door like that, I’ll be convinced you’re trying to audition for ‘love struck teenager’,” he said, letting out a chuckle as he walked over.

Mei dropped her hand and turned to him, obviously embarrassed. “Shut up,” she muttered, a small smile on her face as she glanced at the desk.

From the way she’d been acting since Tuesday, it was obvious. Something had happened, and she was insanely happy about it. From what Hyunwoo had walked in on in the locker room, he could hazard a guess that was probably quite accurate.

In fact, Mei knew that she didn’t even need to tell him; he just knew.

With a warm smile, Hyunwoo gave her an affectionate pat on the shoulder as he walked past into the office to search for something, and Mei continued to stare at the door. She knew it was silly, but the closer it had gotten to the time that Wonho would show up, the less she could focus on work. She just really wanted to see him. What made the warmth in her chest even better though, as she remembered their last encounter and the reluctance he had shown when pulling away, was the thought that he would really want to see her, too.

As she sat and waited, tapping her pen, or bouncing her leg eagerly, the smile on her face very slowly faded, as the time arrived, and passed. He was never late. Ever.

Even Hyunwoo glanced at the door with uncertainty as he looked at the clock, fifteen minutes after Wonho’s usual arrival time.

Seeing Mei’s expression, he gave her a reassuring smile. “He’s probably just caught up somewhere, happens to all of us.”

She’d nodded, and tried to busy herself with monotonous tasks, but as the afternoon grew later, her eyes constantly wandered to the clock, and then to the door, and back to the clock.

Hyunwoo had eventually run out of things to do to fill up the time, and he leant against the wall near the entrance, watching Mei’s nervous habits come out.

Something wasn’t right, and they both knew it. But what could they do? They had no way to contact him. They just had to wait until they heard from him.

After two hours had passed, Hyunwoo had decided that was enough, and began locking up. Mei was silent as he set up the alarm system and nodded his head for her to follow, and she trudged out the door behind him.

As Hyunwoo needed to head straight to work, she walked home by herself, kicking rocks along the footpath as her mind went in circles. There had to be a reasonable explanation for why he didn’t show.

The disappointment at not being able to see him was a strong force constricting her chest, but she kept telling herself to not be selfish, and it was soon replaced by worry. What if something horrible had happened?

A million different scenario’s popped into her head as she walked, and the worry began to gnaw at her insides. If only she could contact him somehow.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she decided that whatever it was, it must’ve been important. As she reached her apartment and shouldered the door open, she told herself that come next week he would appear again with that beautiful smile of his. He’d apologise over and over but would have no need to as soon as she heard the reason for his absence.

She was sure of it.

* * *

**21 st November, 2017**

Hyunwoo walked out of the training room like he had last week and looked at the clock. It was half an hour past Wonho’s usual arrival time, and Mei was furiously sweeping the floor.

He walked over, grabbing the broom from her, “That’s enough,” he said softly. “You’ve swept three times today already.”

She looked uneasy and glanced at the door again. “I need to do something,” she muttered. “I can’t just sit here.”

“You can’t study?” He asked, looking over at her abandoned books on the desk.

She shook her head, and he knew what she would have said. _‘I can’t concentrate.’_

Nu gently placed the broom against the wall, “Come on, then,” he said, turning to walk back into the training room. “It’s been far too long since we sparred.”

Mei had taken one last glance at the door, and then the clock, before following, grabbing her bag of gear as she went.

They sparred for the entire time that Wonho usually trained with Hyunwoo. Mei’s moves were fast but became less calculated as the evening wore on. Where she could usually match Hyunwoo in ability, today he was meeting her moves and redirecting them with ease, only for her to strike back again without much thought.

One of the things he loved about her was her determination, but seeing her strikes turning into desperate jabs was not like her at all and he didn’t like it, even if it may have been keeping her mind off Wonho.

Some time later, he signalled for them to finish, hunching over to try and catch his breath. Mei was just as tired, turning to collapse on the floor beside him. She stayed there as Nu headed off to shower, and by the time he was done and grabbing his bag, he poked his head back into the training room to see her holding the bokken.

“I’m going to work,” he called out to her. “Are you right here?”

She stopped her movements for a moment to look over her shoulder. Even though she gave him a reassuring smile, he could see that there was something vital missing from her expression. It only added to the mess of uneasiness in his own gut.

“Yeah,” she finally answered, “I’m gonna train a bit more and then lock up. Have fun at work.”

Nu stood there for a moment, as if contemplating something, but then just smiled at her and nodded, saying his goodbye as he walked out.

Mei didn’t even know how long she’d spent in that training room, going through the kata one by one, over, and over, focusing on her technique, getting the moves precise. She’d graded through all these already, but she could always do with more practice. Her arms were burning from swinging the bokken around so much, but that was her fault for missing so much training recently.

Eventually, she tired herself out, and collapsed on the floor, the bokken sitting beside her as she tried to catch her breath, arms spread wide out beside her.

She didn’t want to think about it. She’d tried so hard not to think about it, but now she was so exhausted. She remembered the day when her and Wonho had sparred for the first time, and he’d been the one lying on floor, his chest rising and falling rapidly, sweat beading on his forehead.

She could feel nausea in her gut, but she had no idea whether it was from training too hard or the horrible feeling that had been engulfing her since last week.

Where was he?

* * *

**30 th November, 2017**

_“Hey Pumpkin, I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to come to the dojo lately,”_ Tae’s voice sounded through the phone, making Mei’s stomach do a backflip as she glanced at the door.

Two weeks. It had been two whole weeks and yet they’d still heard nothing.

“It’s fine Dad,” she answered absently, “You know we’ve got it covered.”

_“Yes, but I still don’t like leaving you two to do everything especially when you have your studies to focus on,”_ he answered unhappily. _“I promise I’ll come in next week after I’m finished with this project at work.”_

“I told you it’s fine, take your time,” she responded. “I may have my studies but Nu’s all over it.”

He seemed to give in, then, letting out a grateful sigh. _“That’s good to hear. How’s Wonho by the way? Still getting his butt kicked by little children?”_ he chuckled.

Mei’s chest constricted, as she glanced at the clock. It was way past the time he used to show up.

Swallowing through the lump in her throat, she faked a breathy laugh, “Yeah,” she said, “He’s good.”

There was a pause. _“Are you alright, Pumpkin?”_ Tae asked. _“Did something happen?”_

She bit down onto her lip. She had no idea why she felt the need to lie to her Dad of all people, but it just happened. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just tired. I gotta go.”

He didn’t sound convinced, but let it go. _“Alright sweetheart. I love you.”_

She looked at the door again. “Love you too, Dad.”

…

It was the week after that, that Mei and Hyunwoo both silently decided that he just wasn’t going to show up. No matter how long they waited, and hoped, it just wasn’t going to happen.

They had no idea just why he’d suddenly disappeared like this, but it hurt Mei more than anything, and Hyunwoo knew that.

But instead of talking to him like she always would when something was on her mind, she did the complete opposite. He had no idea what was going through her head, but he could hazard a guess that it wasn’t pleasant.

He tried to talk to her and got half assed responses. He tried to invite her out somewhere and got declined. He tried offering her favourite things and was brushed off.

He didn’t know what to think. He was just hurt, and he didn’t even know where the source of his own hurt came from.

He focused on doing small things that he knew would help. They didn’t see a lot of each other at home, as Hyunwoo was either working or sleeping when Mei was there, but he always made extra helpings of food for her and left them in the fridge.

There were several times where Nu would come home from work to see Mei’s attempt at pulling an all-nighter end up with her asleep with her head on the coffee table. She’d then either be woken up by the pleasant smell of a warm cup of coffee that had been placed beside her, or she’d find herself in her own bed the next morning, confused as to how she got there.

* * *

**30 th December, 2017**

It was late when Hyunwoo was unlocking the front door to the apartment, shouldering it open as the music from the bar he worked at still circled in his head. Hearing the same songs every night over and over was a little tiresome, but he needed the money, and it paid the bills, so he couldn’t complain.

It was rare that Mei would still be awake when he got home from work – her late-night study sessions wouldn’t last much past midnight – so he was surprised to see the glow of a light shining out from the hallway. When he walked over, he saw his flat mate and long-time best friend trudging out of the bathroom.

“What are you doing still up?” he asked, opening his bedroom door to throw his bag down.

Mei turned, and gave him a tired smile. “Just looking at some new material to stay on top of my uni work,” she said.

He leant against the doorframe, “We’re in the middle of the break, you don’t need to study.”

She shrugged, “Well I want to?”

He shook his head, glancing down for a moment with an amused smile on his face. Because she had taken on a few extra shifts at the café, he hadn’t had much of a chance to see her in the last week or so. Now, he was able to ask something that had been on his mind recently.

“You doing alright?”

Mei’s tired eyes glanced elsewhere, but she nodded. “Yeah.”

He wasn’t buying it. His gaze was concerned, but gentle, as he tried to silently urge her to look at him. “You know you can talk to me, Mei.”

“I know,” she said, turning to give him a grateful smile. “For now though, I’m going to sleep. It’s late.” She turned to walk towards her bedroom, and he nodded.

“It sure is,” he said. “Will you be going to the new year’s party tomorrow?”

She stopped at her door, glancing over her shoulder. “Nah, I’m not in the mood to deal with so many people,” she admitted. “Goodnight, Nu.”

He watched as she closed the door, thinking about how every previous year she would be buzzing with excitement for the party. He sighed as he walked into his own room, running a hand through his hair. The dojo had felt incredibly quiet ever since their newest student disappeared, and Mei wasn’t the only one feeling it.

“Dammit Wonho,” he murmured. “Where are you?”

* * *

 

**2 nd January, 2018**

The training room was quiet as Hyunwoo swept up all the dirt and grass trudged in by all the kids, granted there had been a much smaller class today with the amount of families on holidays. He had some older students as well, but they weren’t going to show up this week either, which was fine.

He could hear the breeze whistling outside, and the sway of the trees, and the ticking of the clock. He’d forcefully stopped himself from watching the clock a few weeks ago, but still felt the urge to check, though it would do no use.

He turned his back to the clock as if making it final, as he swept the grass into the corner. He was just about to turn to go and find the dust pan, when the silence was broken by another sound.

He’d only heard it once or twice before. It was a strange sound, one that you wouldn’t be able to decipher unless you knew what it was. It was the sound of air particles being moved suddenly, to make room for something that hadn’t been there a second ago.

It was directly behind him, and when he heard it, Hyunwoo was so surprised that he fumbled the broom and dropped it, making it clatter to the ground in front of him. He didn’t even move to pick it up. He was frozen in his spot, his hand still sitting in mid air as he’d tried to catch it. His eyes were wide, and his lips parted.

There was no way he could have imagined that sound, yet he was so afraid to turn around, as if nothing would be there and his mind had reached the point of playing tricks on him.

In the next moment, a relieved sigh had filled the space, as if releasing months’ worth of tension, and when Nu heard his name spoken through the silence, he couldn’t deny it.

“Hyunwoo,” it was breathy, and almost disbelieving, but it was the same familiar voice that had once laughed with him in this very space.

He turned around.

Standing by the window, his dark hair being lifted by the breeze that blew in, was Wonho. He was staring at Nu with such relief on his face.

All Hyunwoo could manage to say was a breath of disbelief, “Wonho.”

He’d finally returned. But how? And why? And what had happened to make him disappear in the first place? He wanted to voice these questions that had circled his head, but he just couldn’t manage to move his mouth as Wonho rushed over, engulfing him in a tight hug.

He’d barely even noticed the cast on the man’s arm until he felt it pressing into his back, but he didn’t have the chance to ask about that either as Wonho started muttering into his shoulder.

“Nu, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Hyunwoo had hugged him for a moment, before grabbing his shoulders and pushing him back to look at him. “I’m not the one you need to apologise to,” he said, his gaze fixed right on Wonho’s eyes as they widened.

“Where is she?” he asked, his expression a bizarre mixture of hope, panic, guilt, and longing.

Hyunwoo nodded to the door, “Left maybe five or ten minutes ago. If you run, you might be able to catch her.”

Wonho looked at the door, as if he was about to bolt off, but then looked back to Hyunwoo uncertainly, as if having second thoughts on leaving him.

Nu’s gaze turned hard, “Go.”

In the next second, Wonho turned and darted out of the training room, yelling his thanks.

Hyunwoo stood there for a moment, staring after him. What on earth had happened?

.

Hoseok’s ankle was aching with every step he took, but he just kept running. He needed to find her, he needed to see her. If she’d gone any further than the train station, he would have no idea where to look. After everything he had done, he could handle a sore ankle so long as he got to Mei in time. He was already so late as it was.

He was just approaching the train station when he saw her. Walking with hands in her pockets, her ponytail swinging with her steps, his breath caught in his throat. She was there. She was right there.

Still running, he took in a deep breath, and called out.

“Mei!”


	14. The Talk

His lungs were heaving from sprinting all the way here. Usually it took them ten minutes to walk this far, chatting and joking amongst themselves, before sharing warm smiles as they parted until next time.

He’d done a lot of running in the past recently. First, when he’d run out of the dojo thinking he was late. Then, when he ran back towards Mei when he realised he had more time. Back then, as he’d darted towards her retreating back, his heart had been full, and he’d been filled with energy.

But then, he’d used up all his time and had ran to try and find somewhere to warp safely. The aching in his ankle now and the weight on his arm was a reminder of how stupid he had been that day. Now he was finally running back towards her, after a month of pain and frustration and guilt, and he had no idea what to expect.

As soon as he’d called out to her, she stopped. The street was so quiet that the sound of his pounding footsteps echoed off the buildings, and he finally came to a stop a few paces away from her. He wanted to hunch over and rest hands on his knees to catch his breath, but he stayed up straight, watching her so intently. His breaths were heaving in and out, his lungs were on fire, and his ankle was aching within the support he’d put on it. His eyes were trained on her back, too afraid to say or do anything until she moved. 

She didn’t turn around, but after a moment, she did speak. “Here to give excuses?” she asked. Her tone was sharp, and it cut straight into his chest. He’d thought over what he was going to say a thousand times or more, but now his throat closed up and the words died in his mouth.

She was so close, but so far away. The guilt that had been eating at him resurfaced. He’d hurt her. He wanted so bad to just go back and stop himself from making this stupid mistake, so that he’d never wiped that beautiful smile from her face.

But that was just the thing. What exactly would he have done? There were so many moments where he should have done something different, but the reason he made those decisions in the first place was because he enjoyed her company so much.

He needed to make this right.

He opened his mouth, “No, I-” as soon as he said it, he cut himself off. Maybe it was excuses. He didn’t know what to say. His tongue was tied, and his heart was pounding, and he couldn’t even see her face.

She saved him from the silence by speaking again, her back still defiantly facing him.

“You can’t just kiss me, and then disappear without a word, and expect me to run straight back to you when you decide to show up. In fact, I’m surprised you even bothered.”

Her voice cracked during the last sentence, and his heart broke. Everything about her demeanour and her words suggested that she didn’t want to see him, and if that were the case he would swallow it and accept her wishes, but she needed to know the truth first.

He took a deep breath, his chest still rising and falling heavily after his sprint. “I have an explanation,” he said eventually. “It’s completely up to you what you think of it. But you deserve to know.”

Her head moved, looking at the ground. She was thinking. He was ready to beg if she wasn’t willing to hear this. _‘You can punch me and hate me forever, but please just listen to what I have to say, you need to know, you deserve to know.’_

The silence sliced through the air between them, the only thing accompanying it being the traffic on the neighbouring street, and the train that Hoseok pretended to catch all this time entering the station.

“Will you listen?” he asked. The desperation had seeped into his voice, but at this point he didn’t care how pathetic he looked. He’d put Minhyuk’s job on the line just so he could talk to her, she had to listen to him.

_Please._

She turned her head enough to look over her shoulder, seeing him standing behind her, sweating and breathless. “Fine.”

.

After Hoseok had awkwardly explained to her that it wasn’t something he could disclose in public, Mei had huffed and started walking again, not looking back at him. He’d taken that as a sign to follow, and quietly stumbled along behind her.

He’d never walked with her any further than the train station, so he was intrigued as he followed her along her usual route home, the silence between them deafening.

They eventually reached an apartment block and Mei lead him up to the second floor, having not looked back once during the last ten minutes. His heart was still pounding as he watched her fight with the lock on the door, forcing it open and waltzing straight in. He caught the door before it could whack him in the face and tentatively stepped in behind her.

It wasn’t a very large apartment, but there was a lounge area to his left with a couch and tv, and a small kitchen to his right, with a hallway disappearing past it. It wasn’t much, but it was nicer than his place, with the brick walls and steel support poles in the middle of the room.

Mei walked over to the kitchen bench and threw her keys and bag down, massaging her temples. “The main thing I don’t understand is: why now?” she suddenly asked, turning to set her hard gaze on him. “It’s been over a month. The phone number to the dojo is just a google search away. I don’t care what happened, how could just contacting me be so god damn hard?”

Now that she’d looked at him properly, he saw her gaze drop to the cast on his arm, and then to the way he was leaning all his weight on one foot, and up to the healing scar on his chin.

She wanted to yell at him some more but bit her tongue. She wanted to scream about how worried she had been, how she couldn’t focus with the weight of his absence on her mind. She wanted to remind him that the worst thing was the fear of not knowing. He knew what had happened with her mother, shouldn’t he have understood that?

The fact that he was here now was even more baffling. If he had been like her mother and decided he didn’t want her, he would have left, and she would never have seen him again. But now he was here, over a month later, looking sad and apologetic.

She finally voiced one of the things circling through her head. “What the hell is going on?”

He took a deep breath and met her gaze. “I haven’t been one hundred percent honest with you,” he admitted. He glanced to the side, before deciding to just jump straight into it. Looking back at her, he continued. “To begin with, my name isn’t really Wonho. It’s Hoseok. Lee Hoseok. I’m…the son of Lee Baekhyun.”

He watched the expression on her face change to complete bafflement. She already had numerous questions but voiced the one that was most prominent in her mind. “You mean… _the_ Lee Baekhyun? The Kendo prodigy?”

He remembered seeing all the newspaper clippings on the wall in the office, and the strange feeling he had gotten when he first saw them. He nodded. “Yes.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she’d said straight away, shaking her head. “You’re basically the same age.”

Hoseok then reached into his pocket, “That’s because I haven’t been born yet…” he murmured. He pulled out the watch, the glass still cracked, and showed it to her. As her eyebrows raised, he explained what it could do and that he was actually from 30 years in the future.  

He could tell from the look on her face that she couldn’t comprehend that idea. Her brows drew together, and she opened her mouth, and closed it again. She wouldn’t just be able to accept it because he said so. Besides, the idea of time travel in 2017 was nothing but a fantasy from sci fi movies.

“You could ask Hyunwoo,” he said then. “He’s seen it before.”

Mei blinked, and then reached into her pocket for her phone, her eyebrows still creased in utter confusion, not really knowing what to think. She’d heard some crazy excuses before, but this would just be ridiculous as an excuse. She typed Nu a quick message, knowing he would still be at the dojo.

**_He’s a…time traveller????_ **

Only a moment later, she received a response.

**_Yeah it sounds pretty ridiculous doesn’t it?_ **

Hoseok watched uncertainly as Mei typed, wondering just what her and Nu were saying. He couldn’t believe that even after he’d disappeared, Hyunwoo had still kept his promise.

When Mei asked Hyunwoo exactly how he knew, he said that he’d seen Hoseok materialize out of thin air. As ridiculous as it sounded, she trusted her best friend, so decided to believe it.

“Okay…” she said, putting her phone down as her mind tried to work through all of this. “So…if you’re from the future…where…when are you from? Are you really 24 years old?”

He nodded, “Yes. I’m from 2047, I was born…will be…born in 2023.”

She looked around herself, “How did all of this start then? Why are you here?”

Hoseok looked down at the watch that he’d spent so many weeks trying to fix. “These watches are a big thing where I’m from, but they’re very rare. I managed to find one and wanted to try it out, and it brought me here. It was supposed to just be a one-time thing, but…” he shrugged then. “I found the dojo and…then I met you.”

He knew what she would have asked next, so he kept explaining, his thumb running over the crack in the glass. “I wanted to learn Kendo because it’s the only way I feel connected to my Dad. Things in my time are so…different. I couldn’t do it there, it didn’t feel real. When I found the dojo, I thought it was the most amazing thing ever, that of course I had to come back, and you and Nu were so nice and wonderful I got so invested in these visits. I wasn’t supposed to keep coming back but I did, and then when I realised what I was doing, it was too late.”

She’d stood there so patiently as he talked, taking it all in. He was fiddling with the watch, his gaze downcast, glancing up at her every now and then. His voice had a depth to it that she hadn’t heard before.

“I meant to tell you for so long, but I was a coward. And then the last time I was here…you remember that I was in a hurry to be somewhere?”

Mei swallowed the lump in her throat. She remembered everything about that day. The distracted way he’d been training, acting nothing like his usual self. The sound he’d made when he hit his head on the locker after she’d unintentionally surprised him. The tenderness to his voice when he’d complimented her, slowly closing the distance between them in the locker room. The way he’d called out to her on the street, running right up to her and kissing her without any hesitation. The reluctance in his eyes when he said he needed to go, holding onto her for just a moment longer, before withdrawing from her arms.

“Yes,” she finally said. “I remember.”

He held up the watch, “It has a time limit. I can only be here for so long before I get warped back, and I ran out of time…” he then held up his cast as he told her about the collision he’d had with the cyclist, causing the watch to break. He saw her gaze move to the cast, and then the scar on his jaw, as he mentioned it. It was only subtle, but the fact that he saw the slightest amount of concern in those eyes when he mentioned his injuries made his heart jump.

He told her the rest. How the watch had been broken, how he’d begged Minhyuk to steal information for him, and how they’d spent weeks trying to fix it. His voice betrayed him part way through, revealing some of his hopeless frustration during that time as he stumbled over his words. But now the important thing was that she was there, and she was listening to him. She would finally know the truth. It took some of the weight off his shoulders, knowing that he was finally being honest with her.

“I never wanted to hurt you,” he said finally, biting his lip, and balling his hand into a fist. “But I know that I did. I screwed up so bad and I would do anything to take it back, but I know that I can’t. I was a selfish coward and if you want me to just disappear then I will, because you deserve so much better than this.”

He couldn’t stop blabbering. The story was over, but he was still talking, nothing but apologetic nonsense coming out of his mouth.

“I just need you to know what happened, and that I’m so, so sorry.” He said finally, forcing himself to shut up. He stood there, staring back at her as those eyes bore into his, feeling so emotionally vulnerable after spilling all those words, but glad that he did. The rest was up to her.

He prepared himself to be told to leave. Even if his explanation was satisfactory, that still left the fact that he was from a completely different time. He didn’t belong here.

Her expression was hard to read. He could see that so many different things must have been going through her head, as she tried to take in all that information. She stood there for a moment, staring at him as if trying to find the answer to an unspoken question.

Then, she moved.

Mei took two steps towards him and just threw her arms around him.

Hoseok’s eyes flew wide as her warmth engulfed him, and his arms stayed frozen in mid air for a moment, before slowly resting on her back. Her hair tickled his cheek, as he stared confused at the space in front of him.

“I-” he tried to voice his thoughts, almost speechless from how sudden she’d closed the distance. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“I am,” she said, muttering into his shoulder. “But I still missed you, you bastard.”

He breathed out a sigh, shifting his arms to hug her back properly. “I missed you, too,” he murmured.

“I was so worried about you,” she said, and even though it was muffled he could hear the annoyance in her voice. “I didn’t know what happened.”

He could only manage to utter an apology, “I’m sorry.”

She sighed into his shirt. “I know you are. I just- I don’t know what to think…”

He glanced up at the ceiling, not wanting to say these words but knowing they needed to be said. “Listen, Mei, I don’t think I should-”

She cut him off instantly, “Stop talking.”

He moved his head to look at her – granted he could only see the mess of her hair – and his heart beat painfully because if it had been any other situation that didn’t involve him being a lying time traveller, it would have been cute.  

Heck, it still was.

Her hands were bunched in the back of his shirt, and she wasn’t letting go. She was like a stubborn little kid, not wanting to let go of the teddy bear that belonged to her sibling instead.

“Wait.”

Hoseok blinked as Mei finally pulled back, holding his shoulders as she looked at him. “If you have a watch that controls time, why did you show up now? Why not a month ago?” she asked.

That sad look in his eyes returned, as he glanced at the watch again. “When I fixed it, I wasn’t able to fix it completely. I couldn’t figure out where I’d gone wrong, but…none of the dates in 2017 worked, and only a handful in 2018 do. This was the closest I could get to.”

Mei’s hands stayed on his shoulders, as she glanced at a space behind him. “When’s the next date?” she asked.

He hesitated for a moment, before answering, “Sometime in February.”

Next month. He’d spent all this time away and he wouldn’t be back until next month. Unconsciously, Mei’s hands tightened their grip on his shoulders.

He watched her as she stayed silent, and it beat down over him like a weight, every moment that they stayed like that. He needed to know what was going through her head.

“What are you thinking?” he found himself asking.

She glanced back up at him, and then to the side. “Well…” she began. “I should be trying to think of what this all means, but…instead I just…”

His heart started beating faster, fear slowly spreading at what she was going to say, but he needed to hear it. “What is it?” he prompted.

She glanced down, “I just…want to kiss you.”

The moment those words came out of her mouth, Hoseok’s brain just shut down. That was the last thing he had expected to hear. His breath just caught in his throat as he remembered the last time he had seen her, those soft lips following his every movement and sending his head spinning.

He shouldn’t have said what he did next, but his mouth had moved before he could think about it. “Can I?”

It was quiet and breathy, but she heard it clearly, and he held his breath as she slowly looked back up at him.

When she met his eyes, she wanted to forget all about being angry at him. Maybe she could just for now. She swallowed, still keeping his gaze as she let out a breath, “Yeah.”

The smile that broke out onto his face then was like the sun reappearing after a long night of darkness. His eyes lit up, turning into beautiful little crescents, as he carefully lifted a hand to her cheek.

He wanted to say something. He wanted to spill a multitude of stupid sentences just like he had that time in the locker room, but for fear of embarrassing himself he bit his tongue. Instead, he just gently brushed his thumb across her cheek, giving her plenty of time to change her mind, but also loving the feel of her skin underneath his fingertips.

Then he stepped forwards, closing the distance as his heart began to pound inside his chest again. He’d moved so close he could feel her breath on his lips and it made him feel dizzy. One of her hands had moved from his shoulder to rest softly against his chest. He couldn’t believe that he was here, with her in his arms again. He never imaged that he could do this again.

With uneven breaths and a pounding heart, he closed his eyes and pressed his lips against hers in a soft, tentative kiss. Even though he had kissed her before, this felt entirely new. Everything about their movements was gentle and careful, just like how Mei had guessed their kiss in the locker room would have been had it have happened.

It was so sweet and gentle that it took his breath away, and he was sure she could feel his pounding heartbeat beneath her fingertips.

After a moment, they pulled away ever so slightly, both unsure of what they were doing and if they were supposed to stop. Their breaths mingled in the small space between them, before Mei murmured very quietly.

“Won-Hoseok?” it turned into a question.

“Yeah?” he breathed in response.

Her hand on his chest moved slightly, bunching in his shirt, and then letting it go again. “I don’t know what to do.”

Hoseok couldn’t help but move his hand to gently brush the hair away from her eyes, “I’ll do whatever you want me to,” he breathed. “What do you want?”

She sighed, “I don’t know, I…I just want to see you.”

An odd look crossed his expression then, as if he couldn’t comprehend what she was saying. “Even after everything I did…?”

Of course he was confused. She was still angry at him, she knew that, and would probably need to rant to Nu about it later, but she didn’t want to waste this time that she had with him now. It would take a lot longer than a few hours for her to work through all this.

“I need time to think, but I still want to see you,” she said. “Not just now but later, too.”

He looked conflicted, but hopeful. “I…I can’t come back until February…” he said, as if trying to convince her that it wasn’t worth it, although his heart was rejoicing at the thought.

She thought to herself for a moment, before making a decision, and setting her gaze on him again. It was sure, and final.

“If you promise to show up,” she said, “I’ll wait for you.”

And just like that, his world opened up again.


	15. His Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kinda forgot to post this last week? woops, sorry guys TT
> 
> BUT the good news is you'll get two chapters at once! So enjoy~

Hoseok looked up as a pair of birds flew overhead, their paths crossing and looping around each other, before landing on a nearby tree branch. Beyond them, he could see the sky, filled with scattered clouds, coloured a beautiful mixture of orange and pink.

He wasn’t quite ready to look down from the sky yet.

This was entirely his doing, too. It had started back at Mei’s apartment, after the important part of their talk was over. She’d asked him how much time he’d had left, to which he had answered a couple of hours. As for what they would do in that time, Hoseok had then remembered something Mei had said to him the very day they met, and so he repeated the words back to her.

“I hear the northern look-out is pretty spectacular.”

So now they were here.

“Hoseok?” Mei asked, turning back to him. He’d stopped a decent way back from the railing, pretending to be fascinated by the birds, but now he had no other excuse to be looking up for so long.

“Yeah?” he tried responding in a nonchalant tone. His efforts were useless though, he knew he was had.

Mei began to walk back towards him, “What’s the matter?” she asked.

He clenched and unclenched his hands by his sides. “Uh, I may have…failed to mention…”

Taking the last few steps towards him, Mei creased her eyebrows and smacked her hand against his chest, “You said no more lies!”

It wasn’t the same angry tone she had used before. He knew that she wasn’t actually mad at him – not about this at least – but rather trying to coax him to talk.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to-”

She cut him off, wanting to get right to the point. “Just say it already.”

“I’m scared of heights.”

He was finally looking at her now, his gaze focused on her face and ignoring whatever may have been behind her. Her expression had changed, slight surprise showing on her features in the way her eyebrows lifted, and lips parted.

“You’re afraid of heights?” she asked him. He nodded, and suddenly the discomfort on his face all made sense. “And you wanted to come here?”

He glanced down for a moment, “I thought you would like it.”

Mei let out a short laugh, as she reached out to grab his hand. “Not if you’re going to be uncomfortable the whole time. We can go somewhere else.”

He squeezed her hand, “No, I want to be here. I’ve been avoiding things I’m scared of for too long. Just…bear with me please?”

He was met with her dazzling smile, as she nodded. “Okay. You don’t have to look at the view yet, just look at me.”

Still holding his hand, she gave it a gentle tug as she began to walk backwards, towards the railing. He kept his gaze on her as he followed, putting one step in front of the other, focusing on nothing but her.

This face that he hadn’t seen for weeks, with her beautiful deep brown eyes, patiently trained on him. The curve of her lips, and the way she smiled at him. The flow of her hair, lifting under the breeze.

A few more steps, and they were almost at the railing.

As much as he tried focusing on her, he could see it in his peripheral vision. The vast open space, way below them. He could feel his heart picking up, knowing what was coming.

He opened his mouth, “Not to be sudden, but,” he squeezed her hand again. “Can I kiss you?”

It was probably an excuse, and Mei knew that. In the end though, she decided that she didn’t care. She smiled, and lifted her other hand, signalling that he would have to come to her. She wasn’t going to backtrack after they’d made it this far.

When he placed his other hand in hers, she pulled him forwards, and lifted her head to meet his lips.

As he relaxed, his hands moving to rest comfortably on her waist as hers slid up his arms, there was a voice in the back of her head trying to remind her that this was only temporary. She did her best to ignore it.

After a moment, he surprised her.

Amidst their kiss, he took a step forward, making her step back. When she realised what he was doing, she smiled against his lips, grabbing onto the collar of his jacket so she could tug him back further.

His heart was pounding, except this time he couldn’t tell if it was her or the height. It was just adrenaline, pumping through his veins, and making his mind a blur.

When Mei’s back hit the railing, he surprised her again and stepped to the side, turning them so that they were adjacent to it, the cold steel pressing into his side.

Unfortunately, he needed a moment to breathe, so it was then that he broke the kiss, still holding onto her and not wanting to open his eyes.

He did though when she spoke. “Hoseok,” she said softly.

The first thing he saw was that beautiful smile. She was looking up at him with that dazzling expression of hers which can’t have been helping his pulse.

“The view is pretty amazing,” she coaxed.

He didn’t even hesitate, “But my view is great, too.” 

That made her laugh, as she hit his chest. “That was cheesy, and you know it.”

He grinned at her, before finally deciding to bite the bullet, and he quickly turned his head.

The sun was setting in the west, casting beautiful hues of pink and orange across the clouds, as rolling hills fell below them, the trees swaying in the afternoon breeze.

Mei was right, it was pretty amazing. But also, very high.

“Whoa,” was all he could manage to say, his hands tightening their grip on the sides of her shirt. He took in a few deep breaths as his pulse hammered, and Mei slid her hands up and down his arms in a comforting gesture.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked him.

He nodded, his eyes fixated on the horizon. “Yeah. I think I’d like to sit down now.”

.

They’d found a bench to sit on that was tucked away from the main look out, making Hoseok comfortable again, but still nice enough with the surroundings. Mei could see the sun setting through the trees, as the colours stretched further across the sky.

As they sat, Mei had a leg tucked up, so she could sit sideways, and Hoseok’s elbow was propped up on the backrest, facing her.

“What’s the future like?” she had asked him.

He blinked. “That’s a very broad question,” he laughed. “What do you want to know?”

She shrugged, “Well I mean, it’s thirty years ahead, right? I thought medicine would have evolved at least a little.” She gently tapped the cast on his arm.

“Oh,” he looked down at the cast. “It has. Only for those who can afford it, though.”

He told her about what had changed since the Federation took over, leading him to not have a choice in what he did and how much money he earned. Mei sat and listened patiently, taking in every detail. She wanted to hear everything, but they didn’t have the time for that. He told her about his job and his lazy boss, he told her about the yappy dog that his neighbour had, anything really. It felt so nice to not have to hold back anymore or worry about what he said.

“What about your friends?” Mei asked then. “You mentioned a Minhyuk?”

Hoseok smiled, “Ah, yes. Min has been my friend since high school. He’s been a lot of help recently. I don’t talk to anybody else, but I don’t know what I would do without him.”

Mei was smiling, “That’s sweet, he sounds like a great friend.”

Hoseok was smiling fondly, remembering all the nagging Min had been doing in the last several weeks. “Yeah,” he responded. “He is.”

After a moment, he finally remembered something he was supposed to do. “Oh! I have something for you…”

Mei raised her eyebrows curiously as she watched him reach into the pocket of his jacket and pull out a small, flat round device, maybe half the size of her phone. He tapped it twice, and in a second a small ball of light appeared above it.

“This is Siri,” he said, smiling happily at her.

Mei’s jaw dropped when the device suddenly spoke to her. _“Hello Mei,”_ it said, the voice robotic but smooth, with a feminine tone. It was very weird, but the soft blue hue was comforting. _“It is nice to meet you. I’ve heard quite a lot about you.”_

She was in shock that something that small could not only project what appeared to be a colourful hologram, but also talk.

“Siri?” she asked, reaching for her pocket where her phone was, “As in-”

“Not quite,” Hoseok chuckled. “Siri has evolved quite a lot in the last thirty years. She’s now a fully functional artificial intelligence program. Everyone has a Siri unit in my time.”

Mei gaped at him, “Everyone has one of these?”

He nodded. “They don’t all look like this though, I had to…make a few tweaks, so she could be pocket sized. I want you to have her.”

She gaped at Hoseok as he grabbed her hand to place Siri in her palm. “But why? Don’t you need her?”

He shook his head, giving her a soft smile. “She’ll be much more useful to you. Since I can’t hang around to tell you everything, she can. Any questions that you have, anything to want to know at all, you can ask her.”

She looked down at the device, and then back up at him. “Hoseok…” 

At seeing his soft smile, she moved forwards to give him a hug. His embrace was so warm as the breeze blew past them, and she closed her eyes, trying to enjoy the moment as much as she could.

After all, it wasn’t going to last.

* * *

 

When Hyunwoo arrived home from work that night, boneless and tired, he was surprised to see a small light illuminating in the living room. No other lights were on, so he would have thought Mei to be asleep otherwise.

Quietly, he shuffled around the couch to have a look at what it was, to find her sitting on the floor, her back against the couch as she stared at a floating, glowing ball above the coffee table.

“What the-” he did a double take, and she turned to look at him. “What is that?”

She gave him a small smile. “This is Siri, an A.I. from the future. Hoseok gave her to me.”

He walked over, dropping his bag by the couch as he sat down beside her. “An A.I. huh? Like in those sci fi movies?”

Mei nodded, watching the little ball of light spin slowly. “Yeah, I guess.”

He nodded, watching the light for a moment, before turning to her. “How are you?”

Shrugging, Mei reached out to Siri’s hologram and ran her fingers through it, to which Siri broke the light into little particles, before they all drew together again. It was a trick she’d figured out in the last several hours since Hoseok had left.

“I don’t know,” she replied absently. “Overwhelmed, I guess. Out of everything I had guessed, this wasn’t even in the ball park.”

Hyunwoo smiled slightly, “It’s a lot to take in.”

Mei glanced back at him then, “You knew this the whole time?” she asked.

He looked uncomfortable then, having known this conversation was coming. He glanced to the side, “Not the whole time, but a while, yeah. It was an accident, I wasn’t supposed to know, but he asked me not to say anything. He didn’t want to freak you out.”

Mei was staring at Siri again, nodding as he spoke. “I guess that makes sense.”

His apologetic look was a genuine as possible, “I’m sorry, Mei. I wanted to mention it after he left but I just…didn’t know how.” 

She gave him a small smile, “It’s okay, you’re forgiven.”

He then dropped his hand onto her shoulder, “How about we go to bed, it’s way too late. You can bring me up to speed tomorrow.”

Mei looked back to Siri, her calming luminescence sending blue hues throughout the room, before nodding, as they both stood up. The blue light became a good guide for them as they walked out of the living room and into the hallway, and they said goodnight.

Mei heard Nu’s door shut as she walked into her own room, setting Siri down on her bedside table. Looking at the clock, she realised it was incredibly late, even for Hyunwoo. By the time she was climbing into bed, her mind was already replaying the afternoon, and the last few moments she’d had with Hoseok.

She’d been visibly upset when he’d looked at the watch and told her he only had a few minutes left. From the way he drew her into his arms, holding onto her like he didn’t want to let go, it seemed he was, too.

“I’m sorry,” he’d murmured to her. “I have to go.”

“I wish you could stay,” she’d replied. “Or that I could go with you.”

The breath of air he blew out then was a sad one, “No way, I don’t want you within 100 miles of the federation. Stay here with Hyunwoo, I’ll be back. I promise.”

And as they stood there, the breeze brushing past them, Mei heard the watch begin to tick.

The last thing she remembered before he’d disappeared, was the feeling of his lips pressing to the top of her head.

* * *

 

The next week dragged on longer than ever before as Mei and Hyunwoo continued their daily routine. The only difference being that Mei was finally talking to him again and she had a bright blue companion that moved around the apartment.

Hyunwoo had heard the explanation that Hoseok had given her, as well as the rants she would break into every now and again, which was met with patience and an open ear. Nu was always good at listening when Mei needed it.

“Normally if somebody ever lied to me like that I wouldn’t have any tolerance for it,” she’d said one afternoon, pacing around the apartment after finishing work. “But somehow this is different.”

Sitting at the dining table with his laptop out, Hyunwoo had rested his head on his palm. “You really like him, huh?”

Mei stopped her pacing and sighed. “Yeah, I guess I do. Half of me wishes that I could just let it go, though. I mean, technically speaking I am 29 years older than him! He’s from the god damn future! Isn’t that weird?”

Nu shrugged, “I don’t know, is it?”

Obviously, he wasn’t inclined to try and give her any advice here.

_“May I interrupt, Mei?”_ Siri asked then, her hologram sitting over the kitchen bench.

She turned to the A.I, having forgotten Siri was there. She wasn’t quite used to it, yet. “Yeah, of course.”

_“I notice that you have not asked me anything as of yet.”_

Mei walked over to the hologram, watching the ball of light spin slowly. “I don’t really know what to ask, I guess.”

_“You can ask me anything. That is what I am here for, after all.”_

Hyunwoo watched Mei scratch her head as she spoke to the small intelligence unit. “But I feel it’s…kind of invading his privacy…” she commented.

Siri’s light turned green, then. “ _There is nothing you can ask me that Hoseok would not want you to know. I am certain that is why he left me with you.”_

Mei glanced back at Hyunwoo, as if looking to him for approval. He blinked at her.

_“Perhaps I could show you something to make you more comfortable with the idea,”_ Siri suggested.

“Show me?” Mei asked, raising her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

_“One of my functions is video surveillance, for security purposes. With this, I can show you just how Hoseok came to be in possession of the watch.”_

Hyunwoo stood up and walked over as Siri’s light changed shape into a holographic screen. A moment later, they could see a small studio apartment, and Hoseok’s head poking through the door.


	16. Her Question

**February 14 th, 2018**

_“If you ask me, I think Valentine’s Day is just retail trying to suck money out of people.”_

Mei walked into the kitchen, shielding her eyes from the bright morning sun as she was met with the sight of Hyunwoo sitting at the bench, listening to the radio as he ate his breakfast.

“What is it that you like so much about trash talk radio?” she asked him as she opened the pantry.

When she turned back with her box of cereal, he shrugged at her. “Makes me feel better about myself?” he joked.

She just laughed as she poured herself some cereal, humming along to a song in her head. She was visibly chirpy this morning, but he didn’t need to guess why.

It had been six weeks since Hoseok had shown up at the dojo and ran after Mei to explain everything. Just over a month of waiting, questioning, thinking, and more waiting, and finally she would get to see him again.

The fact that it was Valentine’s day just made it even better.

And to make it fair, Hoseok had said that he would wait for as long as she had to. Technically, he could have just warped back to the future and instantly jumped to this date, but aside from that messing up his calendar, it wouldn’t be fair to her.

She wondered just what he would have been doing while waiting for the day to arrive when he could see her. Surely Minhyuk would help keep him distracted. He should have gotten his cast off by now, too.

Mei realised she’d just been standing there thinking about Hoseok, and shook her head, grabbing her bowl of cereal. She would see him soon enough. At ten o’clock, there would be a knock on her door, and he would be there, smiling at her warmly.

She just had to fill up the time until then. “Hey Siri, do you know where I left my uni notebook?” 

The device on the kitchen bench lit up, projecting the little blue ball as Siri answered. _“You have many notebooks Mei; however I believe the one you have misplaced would be under the couch after your late study session on Sunday.”_

Mei placed her bowl on the bench beside Nu, before wandering over to look under the couch. “Wow, you’re right!” She reached under to push it out and then stood up happily. “What would I do without you, Siri?”

Siri’s hologram changed colours, _“I have heard the same statement from Hoseok before,”_ she mused.

And now he’d given her up to give to Mei. She wondered how he was going without the A.I. that apparently everybody needed in the future. She could ask him later.

Nu placed his spoon down, “Did you end up asking about anything else?” he queried. Mei blinked at him, and he elaborated, “You know, after we saw how Hoseok found the watch?”

“Oh,” Mei walked back over to the bench with her notebook. “Yeah, I’ve asked things.”

 _“She has asked about general details of the future and the federation,”_ Siri explained helpfully. _“But there have been no questions about Hoseok himself.”_

Mei turned to Siri as if she had been betrayed, and Nu raised an eyebrow at her. “Nothing? You don’t want to know anything?”

She shrugged at him, “I don’t know what to ask. I don’t want to pry in his life.”

Hyunwoo glanced at Siri, who changed colour a few times, but did not speak. That argument had already been knocked down last time Mei had used it.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said, waving a hand dismissively, “He’s coming back today. I can talk to him then.”

For the next hour, Hyunwoo watched Mei run around the apartment as ten o’clock slowly approached. She was pulling clothes out, saying ‘how does this look?’ and ‘should I put my hair up or keep it down?’ and ‘is the place clean enough?’

He’d never seen her acting like this before, so it was a little amusing. She seemed to care a whole lot about how she presented herself and their house for when their time warping guest arrived

Unfortunately, Hyunwoo had somewhere to be today, so would need to leave before Hoseok showed up, but he didn’t mind as it seemed that him and Mei needed to have some time to themselves.

Sure, Hoseok was his friend, who he did miss, but whatever was going to happen with his appearances in the future relied on those two. He’d listened to a fair share of Mei’s rants in the last six weeks, but it seemed she wasn’t any closer to figuring out just what she wanted to do or how this could work. She just knew that she missed him dearly and wanted to see him whenever she could.

As Hyunwoo walked over to the door, bag in hand, he turned back to look at Mei who was now making her second cup of coffee just for something to do. She glanced over at him, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

“Relax,” he said. “I’m sure everything will be fine. I’ll hear all about it when I get home, yeah?”

She smiled and nodded happily. As Nu opened the door and stepped out, he gave her a wave, “Enjoy your Valentine’s.”

He was glad that at least she got to be happy today. Walking to the train station, Nu recalled several years ago back in high school, with all the excitement and chocolates and flowers passed around between the students.

He’d walk over to her locker during the lunch break, just in time to see the sad look on her face at finding it was empty.

“Don’t worry,” he’d say to her. “Me too.”

Nu would then throw her the apple that his mother packed for him that he never ate and suggest they could stop by the lolly shop on their way home from school.

It had been quite a few years since then. Knowing Hoseok, he imagined that Mei wouldn’t have any reason to be sad today, so he was happy as he sat on the train, watching the scenery pass by the window.

So long as he ignored all the people holding roses and chocolates and gifts that they were taking to their loved ones.

He puffed out a short sigh, as he stood up at his station. _One day_ , he thought to himself.

By the time Hyunwoo arrived home, the sun was setting in the west, casting low orange hues throughout the apartment. He poked his head in the door but couldn’t see or hear any sign of Mei. This wasn’t cause for alarm, of course, so he walked in and closed the door behind him.

Just as he was about to walk to his room, he heard a sniff.

Stopping by the dining table, he turned his head towards the couch. He hadn’t noticed before, but he could see the top of a brown head of hair.

“Mei?” he asked, walking over. He caught sight of her furiously wiping her eyes, and his stomach dropped. She was upset. Straight away, his mind tried conjuring up just what could have happened.

Had they decided it wasn’t worth it? Was he not going to come back again? Had he told her he didn’t want to see her anymore?

“What’s the matter?” he asked, stopping by the couch.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly, not looking at him.

He glanced elsewhere, refraining from rolling his eyes, “Mei, don’t do this to me,” he said. “What happened?” She wasn’t going to shut herself off from him again, not if he could help it.

She sighed, and slowly turned her head towards him, so that he could see that glassy look in her eyes. “He didn’t show.”

His brows raised in surprise, “What?”

After everything that had happened, he hadn’t considered that Hoseok wouldn’t show up. Again. Surely there had to be a reason. He looked around, “Where is Siri?”

She pointed over her shoulder, “In my room.”

Without another word, Nu turned and headed for Mei’s room, throwing his bag down on the way. He found the A.I. sitting on her desk and picked it up. As he walked back out to the living area, the little blue ball of light appeared. “Where is Hoseok?” he asked her.

Siri changed colours a few times, and Nu placed her down on the coffee table. _“I’m afraid I do not know the answer to that question,”_ she said. _“There could be many reasons why he has not shown.”_

“What’s the most likely reason?” he asked her. “What would stop him from coming?”

He was staring at the A.I with a determined expression, needing answers. Mei reached out to place her hand on his arm. “Nu, its fine. I think it just…it’s not going to work,” she admitted sadly. “We knew that. I just…guess neither of us wanted to admit it.”

Hyunwoo didn’t look convinced, pointing at Siri as if she had all the answers, “But-”

Mei stood from the couch, picking up Siri as she went. “It’s okay, really. Thank you, but I think we just need to move on.”

Her voice cracked as she spoke, still visibly upset, and Nu dropped his hand by his side. She’d moved to step past him, but he reached his arm out to stop her, instead drawing her into a hug.

She accepted it with tired limbs, dropping her head onto his shoulder that was always so warm and comforting when she needed it.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out,” he murmured.

“Yeah,” she responded quietly. “Me too.”

* * *

 

 _“If I were capable of feeling emotion,”_ Siri said to Mei a week later, _“I am sure I would show sympathy for you.”_

Mei laughed, sitting at her desk, with an unfinished essay open on her laptop. She hadn’t written any more of it since she’d sat down an hour ago. “Thanks Siri,” she said half-heartedly. “I half wish I could be like you right now.”

 _“I disagree,”_ Siri responded. _“After all, it is these emotions that you are struggling with that makes humans who they are.”_

Mei sighed, pushing her laptop away from herself, “Yeah, but can they not cause me trouble while I’m trying to do an assignment? I can’t focus!” She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She knew things always got better with time, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him. “Why can’t I let it go?”

 _“Perhaps because you are still looking for closure,”_ Siri suggested.

“Closure?” Mei asked.

There was a moment’s pause. _“Are you ready to ask me anything yet?”_ Siri enquired. _“Perhaps you will find the answer you are looking for.”_

Mei let out a sigh, glancing around herself. She knew about the federation, she knew about the Siri units and the allocation of jobs and the cool technological advances that had been made.

But she didn’t know any more about Hoseok.

“Alright,” she gave in, sitting back in her chair. She thought to herself for a moment, trying to think of something to ask. She said the first thing that popped into her head. “What happened when the watch broke?”

 _“Excellent question,”_ Siri answered. _“Allow me to show you.”_

Just like weeks ago, Siri’s light changed, and suddenly Mei was looking at what must have been Hoseok’s apartment. She held her breath.

There was a man standing in the middle of the room, and his face changed to one of utter shock when Hoseok appeared, sprawled on the floor, and writhing in pain.

“Is that Minhyuk?” she asked.

“Yes,” Siri responded.

Mei watched with wide eyes as he rushed over, and then carefully dragged him out to take him to the hospital. As they left, she saw what was left lying on the floor; it was the watch, with the glass smashed and case dented.  

Siri skipped forwards to when they’d finally arrived home, Minhyuk helping him limp over to the bed. Hoseok looked pretty worn out, so waved off Minhyuk’s offers to stay and help him with things, and instead claimed he just wanted to sleep. It was just after the door closed behind him, that Hoseok looked around himself, realising he didn’t have the watch.

“Where did it…” his murmured question disappeared in the air as he looked around the room, and finally caught sight of it. Sitting on the floor, beside where he’d been when he warped back, was the watch.

Seeing the smashed glass, his eyes flew wide, and he scrambled out of the bed, muttering profanities at moving his ankle. Kneeling on the floor, he picked up the watch, and Mei could see the moment when he realised it didn’t work.

His eyes grew wide, jaw agape, as he stared at the watch, dread slowly seeping onto his features.

“No…” a hand slowly lifted to cover his mouth. “No, please.” He quickly began fiddling with it, trying to get the hands to move, to do anything. He was panicking. “But I haven’t-I still need to-work damn it!” His frustration reached a peak when he snapped and threw the watch across the room with a yell. It hit the stone wall, causing the holographic clock to glitch for a second, before it returned to normal as the watch fell to the floor.

Mei watched with wide eyes as Hoseok sunk back to sit on the floor, head falling into his hands. It was then that his shoulders began to shake, as the sound of short, hopeless breaths fell in the otherwise silent apartment. He was crying.

Her heart beat painfully, “I can’t watch this,” she said. “Show me something else.”

That evening, instead of doing her assignment, Mei watched as Siri showed her scene after scene of what had happened after the watch broke. All of Minhyuk’s nagging, the desperate yet brilliant idea of getting the info from the federation’s archives, the way Hoseok had thrown his screwdriver to the carpet as he declared he wasn’t angry at his friend.

It seemed that his emotions had been a rollercoaster in those weeks as they tried to fix it. Every now and then they would need to pause from their work to talk things out, especially if emotions were running high.

It was one day that Hoseok finally explained just why he was so angry at himself, and every word hit Mei just as hard as his absence had.

“I’m angry that I got myself into this mess and got involved with someone 30 years in the past. I’m angry that I kept it all a secret from her from day one. I’m angry that even after I decided to tell her, I couldn’t even do that. All I’d seen was this beautiful girl that I’d fallen for and I’d been too selfish and too scared to wipe that smile off her face.”

It was another day, that Minhyuk had asked for Hoseok to tell him more about Mei in order to get his mind off of other things.

She watched as Hoseok turned one of the parts over in his hand. “She’s beautiful,” he said to Minhyuk. “Inside and out. She works so hard, too. Did I tell you she’s essentially working two jobs and studying full time?”

“Really?” Minhyuk said, his brows lifting. “Wow. That’s more than I could handle.”

“Tell me about it,” Hoseok replied. “I’ve never met someone so determined, and she loves everything she does. It’s not often that she’ll train with Hyunwoo and I, but when she does, you can always see this brilliant spark in her eyes. She always gets a kick out of knocking me on my ass.”

Minhyuk chuckled along with him.

“Not to mention, she’s competitive,” Hoseok added then, smiling. “If she wants something, she’ll get it.”

Was he thinking of that night at the arcade? Mei found herself smiling as she remembered sabotaging him on the racers, pulling his steering wheel to the side.

The happy memory brought sadness with it though, and she decided she’d had enough. “Thanks Siri,” she said. “You can stop now.”

The screen disappeared and reformed into the familiar ball of light. _“Do you feel any better?”_ Siri asked.

Mei sighed, “Not particularly. If anything, I think that made things worse…” Now that she’d seen just what he’d gone through while trying to get the watch fixed, she could feel the tug of her heartstrings, and wanted to see him even more. What was that saying? Ignorance is bliss?

She decided to ask Siri one last question. It was something that Nu had tried asking her a week ago.

“Siri,” she said. “From what you know, what is the most likely reason why he never showed up?”

Siri changed colours a few times, collecting data from the time she had been in Hoseok’s apartment.

 _“There are two possibilities that I believe are the most likely,”_ she responded finally. _“One of those being that Hoseok misjudged how well he fixed the watch, or the dates he was able to return to.”_

Thinking about it, that did make a lot of sense. He’d told her he hadn’t been able to fix it completely. And while it was upsetting, maybe it was a good thing that he couldn’t return. How were they supposed to keep seeing each other when there was thirty years between them? How would they manage it? It wasn’t feasible.

She was just about to accept it and go to bed, when Siri continued.

 _“The other possibility that is quite likely,”_ she said, _“Is that the federation caught onto what he was doing.”_

Mei blinked at the A.I. as she remembered information that Siri gave her previously. Being in possession of those watches was illegal. Hoseok didn’t just have one, he’d been using it. Not to mention, he’d gotten Minhyuk to collect sensitive information that they weren’t supposed to have. He’d broken all sorts of rules just to see her.

As the dread slowly formed in the pit of her stomach at the idea of him being caught, she managed to ask one more question.

“What happens then?”


	17. The Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late chapter again, I was away last week so I wasn't able to post TT but we should be back to regular weekly updates. Enjoy!!

 

The steel table felt almost ice-cold underneath Hoseok’s forearms.

The walls were a bare, slate grey, holding nothing but a small holographic clock in front of him, a double mirror to his left, and a door to his right. Aside from the table and the hard-plastic chair he was seated in, the room was completely empty.

Even if he hadn’t have been conscious when he was dragged here, he would’ve known just where it was. Everything about it screamed ‘Federation.’

He pulled on the handcuff around his wrist, but with it being attached to the table, it didn’t allow him a lot of movement. He wanted to groan about how tight it was, digging into his skin, but he had much more important things to be worried about.

After spending at least half an hour in this room on his own, the door finally opened, as a man stepped in. he wasn’t one of the suited guards that had apprehended Hoseok earlier while he was at work, but instead wore a simple button up, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

He looked at Hoseok for a moment, as if sizing him up, before pulling something out of his pocket, and throwing it on the table as he walked over. Hoseok’s eyes followed the watch as it landed in front of him with a clang.

“You did quite a number on it,” the man said, sounding none too impressed. “Guess you must have been prepared for this, hm?”

Hoseok glanced at the watch again, seeing the glass absolutely shattered, and the case even more dented than it had been before. He hadn’t been aware of the consequences of smuggling the watch into the workshop, but he had been prepared enough to break it as soon as he saw the guards come for him. One glance at the suits with federation patches on them and he’d hurled it straight at the wall.

Now at least they wouldn’t be able to find out where he’d been warping to.

He looked back up at the man, and shrugged, to which he received an unhappy scowl.

“Not much of a talker, huh?” the man said, pulling out the chair across from him and sitting down. “Well, you’re going to have to be if you ever want to leave.”

Hoseok stared at him blankly, knowing full well that was an outright lie.

The man pointed at the watch, “Where did you get this?”

This was probably the only question he could confidently tell the truth for. “I have no idea,” he answered.

“Don’t give me crap,” the man snapped. “You obviously know a lot about the watches. Where did you get it?” he asked again, clearly articulating his words.

Hoseok licked his lips as he thought to himself. “I found it,” he answered honestly again. “It was in my apartment. No idea how it got there.”

The man let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back in his chair. He reached for his lapel, apparently speaking into some sort of communicator. “How long does it take to get a bloody ID on someone?”

Hoseok sat bored and silent as the man spoke to somebody, and a few minutes later, the door opened again, as someone tossed a square disc onto the table. Once it skidded to a stop, it lit up, projecting a holographic file.

Hoseok found himself staring at an image of his own face.

“Ah, Lee Hoseok,” the man said, looking at the holo-screen. “Both parents deceased, no siblings, no next of kin. Wow, you’re boring.” The man turned to his colleague, “Search his address, get me the Siri unit.” With a nod and a swift turn, they walked out, and the man stood from his chair.

“If you don’t want to co-operate,” he began, staring Hoseok down. “We have other ways of getting information.”

It was as he walked out, that Hoseok couldn’t help the small smile from breaking out onto his face. “Good luck!” he called out after the man. They would need it if they were searching for something that wasn’t even in this time anymore.

…..

_“Mei, I would suggest taking a seat to avoid making yourself dizzy,”_ Siri suggested, her light sitting above the dining table.

It was the day after she’d finally asked Siri for information, and now her mind was a mess. She’d been upset enough about Hoseok not showing up, but now she was terrified.

One of two things could have happened to prevent him from coming. The first, being the watch was broken, which was likely, meaning Mei would just need to go about her life and try to get over it.

The other, was that he’d been caught breaking the federation’s law, and would be facing punishment. What kind of punishment? She had no idea. Not even Siri had access to that kind of information.

So, because of this new information, she couldn’t just sit and get on with her life. She needed to know.

“I can’t sit,” she threw back, turning to continue her pacing around the living room. “What if he’s in trouble? What happens then? I have no way of knowing if he’s okay!”

Hyunwoo was standing in the kitchen, his hands placed flat on the bench. “Mei, we don’t know that he’s been arrested. It could just be-”

“That’s just it!” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “We don’t know! How am I supposed to move on and pretend everything is all peachy when we don’t know?”

Hyunwoo was about to talk again, but Mei let out a sigh, stopping her pacing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you, Nu. I’m just anxious.”

His expression turned soft, giving her the kind of look that meant that he was used to her behaviours and was okay with it. She smiled at him gratefully.

“I’m gonna go for a walk to clear my head,” she declared, heading for the door. “I’ll be back.”

She glanced over her shoulder as she walked out, seeing Nu’s wave just behind the closing door. As she walked down the stairs and out into the street, Mei realised that she still hadn’t done any more work on her assignment. If she kept this up, she was going to fall behind again.

After all the effort Hoseok had put in to help her out, that thought was a sad one.

She walked for a good ten minutes, silently paying attention to details around her she never noticed before, wondering what the streets looked like in thirty years’ time.

When she reached the park, she had to pull up the hood of her jacket, as the sky opened up. She always seemed to be unlucky enough to get rained on at the most inconvenient of times.

Walking with her head down, Mei huffed and decided she should probably get back home before the rain got any heavier. She was just about to turn and head back, when a pair of feet appeared in her vision, and she skidded to a stop. What was it with this park and running into people?

She looked up, meaning to mutter an apology, but it died in her throat.

There was a man standing in front of her, looking at her as if he knew her. He wore a striped tailored suit, with his hair smoothly styled back, and held an umbrella.

The most noticeable thing about him though, as Mei’s eyed landed on his wrist, was that he was wearing a watch not unlike the one Hoseok had been using.

He dropped his arm by his side, giving her a knowing look. “Hello, Mei.”

…….

Hoseok had lost count of how many words had gone in one ear and straight out the other.

Apparently, the guy who’d spoken to him before was some sort of big shot, and he’d given his team a mouthful as soon as he heard that Hoseok’s Siri unit was nowhere to be found. The outburst had been loud enough for him to hear through the wall, and he’d found himself chuckling at it.

Now, someone new had arrived, apparently having not received the memo that Hoseok wasn’t inclined to talk, and had been throwing question after question at him non-stop. What were you doing? Who were you seeing? How many times did you warp? Where did the watch come from?

So many questions, but he defiantly kept his lips sealed. There was no way he was going to tell any Federation scum about 2017 or the connections he had made there. So long as Mei and Hyunwoo stayed safe in the past, ultimately, he would be happy.

Not to mention, Minhyuk was also at risk now, having helped Hoseok fix the watch by stealing sensitive information. He could feel the nerves in his gut, swimming around and keeping him on edge. He only hoped they stayed oblivious to that part so that his best friend didn’t need to get dragged in here, too.

_Be smart, Min,_ he thought to himself. _Don’t try to look for me._  

……

“Who are you?”

Mei was staring up at this strange man she’d never met before, who apparently knew her name. It was a little weird.

“C.H.W.” The man responded. “My initials are inscribed on the back of each of these.” He lifted his wrist to indicate to the watch he was wearing. “Brilliant invention if I do say so myself.”

“Why are you here?” Mei demanded.

His eyes landed on her, his expression turning serious. “Your boyfriend broke my watch. Twice.”   

She blinked at him, “And what do you expect me to do about that?”

His eyes looked up and over to one of the street lamps, as he let out a short sigh. “I don’t usually feel the need to meddle in other’s affairs…but watching you pace back and forth was giving me a headache.” He decided to cut to the chase. “Your dear boy has gotten himself arrested by the Federation. I suppose you would want to do something about that.”

Mei stared wide eyed as he reached into his pocket, and then handed something over to her. 

It was a watch.

“I-what?”

C.H.W kept talking as if her jaw hadn’t just hit the floor. “Up to you what you choose to do with it, though keep in mind you may need to destroy it promptly after using it. It doesn’t have the same capabilities as the other one.” He gave her a nod, lifting his arm to check his own watch. “I’ll leave you to it.”

He was about to turn away, but Mei managed to gather herself enough to grab his sleeve. “Wait, hang on! What is all of this? Why are you helping me?”

He stared at her blankly, and then chuckled. “Don’t consider yourself special, sweetheart. My motives aren’t as pure as you believe them to be.”

“What does that mean?” she asked. “You didn’t mean to give Hoseok the watch?”

He thought to himself for a moment. “Are you familiar with a series known as Death Note?”

Mei creased her eyebrows. She’d read the manga back in high school, though it was a bit too dramatic for her to enjoy now. “Yes?”

He smiled ever so slightly. “Answer me this, then. Why did Ryuk drop the notebook?”

Mei started blankly at the empty space in front of her, as he disappeared into thin air. The question hung in the silence around her, as she remembered the answer.

_Because he was bored._

…

Hyunwoo had been sitting on the couch in the apartment, quietly talking to Siri when he heard Mei’s voice urgently calling his name.

“Nu!” she shouted, shoving the door open as she burst into the apartment. He looked up in surprise, as she ran over, waving something around in her hand. “I have a watch, I have a watch!” she declared.

His eyes flew wide, “What?” He stood up to meet her as she held it out to him eagerly for him to see. It looked exactly like the one Hoseok used. “Where did you get this?”

She pushed back the hood of her jacket, damp from the rain. She was puffing as she explained, as if she had run all the way here. “A man at the park – C.H.W. He gave it to me. He’s the guy who invented them, he’s the one who planted one in Hoseok’s apartment.”

Hyunwoo turned the watch over in his hands, “And you’re sure this is true?” he asked.

It was then that Siri spoke up from her spot above the coffee table. _“The man who invented the watches is known as C.H.W. and has been wanted by the Federation for quite some time but is the only person who has managed to evade them for so long. He is known to be a tall, slim man with large lips, brown hair, and is usually seen wearing a tailored suit. Does that match the description of the man you encountered?”_

“Yes!” Mei declared. “That’s him. He knew all sorts of things. He knew my name, and what Hoseok had been doing, and that I was pacing earlier and-”

She suddenly cut herself off, remembering the main issue at hand. “Hoseok’s in trouble!” she said. “He’s been arrested by the feds, that’s why C.H.W gave me the watch. What do we do?”

_“If he has been arrested, then he is probably being held at the Federation’s headquarters for questioning,”_ Siri answered. _“After that, I am not sure what protocol is for those who have broken the Federation’s rules, but I can imagine it is not pleasant.”_

Mei turned to Hyunwoo. He looked from Siri, back to her, and shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s obvious, isn’t it?” When her expression changed to gratefulness, Hyunwoo smiled at her, gesturing to the watch. “Let’s go.”


	18. The Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO guess who forgot to update on Sunday? Woops, it was me hehe. We're reaching the home stretch though, I'm aiming for about 21 chapters >.> But there's still a lot to go!!!   
> Enjoy~

It was like the ground had been swept out from beneath her feet. Mei could do nothing but grasp onto Hyunwoo’s hand as tight as she could as the world spun around her, and finally she could feel hard ground beneath her feet.

It was only for a moment though, because they’d been so disoriented, that both her and Nu stumbled and lost their footing. After tumbling to the ground, Mei groaned and rubbed her head as she sat up. Looking around, she blinked at the bright lights above them.

“Are we…are we there?” she mumbled in question.

_“If you mean in the future, then yes,”_ Siri answered from inside her pocket. _“You are now in the year 2048.”_

As Mei and Hyunwoo got to their feet, they took a real look at their surroundings, amazed that they weren’t just standing on the set of a sci fi movie. “Wow…” Nu muttered. “Where do we go now?”

“How about Hoseok’s apartment? There might be clues on what happened,” Mei suggested. “Siri, can you take us there?”

_“Of course,”_ Siri responded. _“I can direct you. We will need to be very careful, however.”_

 Hyunwoo stepped away from the road, pulling Mei with him. “True. We don’t want to see or talk to anyone that we don’t have to.” He glanced at Mei, and she nodded in return. “Let’s go.”

They were lucky that the sun had already gone down, as it made it easier to slip through the streets. What didn’t make it so easy however, was feeling the need to cough every five seconds from whatever was in the air. Holding her cardigan up over her mouth, Mei glanced at the sky, but couldn’t see any stars. It was just thick cloud.

The atmosphere was completely different here. Now she understood just why Hoseok had appeared so fascinated by the sky on their first encounter.

Several minutes later, they found themselves inside the dingy stairwell of an old warehouse-turned apartment complex. As they climbed the stairs, Mei recalled Hoseok telling her about how he’d never had the choice on what he did for a living and therefore what he earnt. It wasn’t fair, this place was almost falling apart.

They finally reached the level his apartment was on, as instructed by Siri, and when they turned the corner, trying to find the right number, they spotted someone.

He was hunched by the door, fiddling with something, almost as if he were trying to break in. Mei skidded to a stop, worried that it may be someone from the Federation, but before they could backtrack, the person turned.

His dark hair fell over his eyes as he stared at Mei and Hyunwoo, who just stared back. Neither party knew what to say.

_“No need for alarm,”_ Siri jumped in then, her smooth robotic voice speaking from Mei’s pocket. _“This is Minhyuk.”_

The man’s eyes widened, as he stared at them. “Siri?” he asked in bafflement. Then, he remembered what Hoseok had told him after his last visit to the past. His eyes landed on the girl, and then her tall friend, as the lightbulb turned on in his head.

“Oh my god…” he said, arms dropping to his sides. “You’re Mei and Hyunwoo.”

Relieved that they didn’t need to explain themselves, Mei lifted her hand in a small, awkward wave.

“Hi.”

…

The holographic clock was counting second by second, as the silence continued in the room. Hoseok was sitting in his plastic chair, and two men were standing in front of him, arms folded and staring him down.

“Where,” one of them started again, clearly enunciating his words, “Is your Siri unit?”

Hoseok twiddled his thumbs, not saying a word. Thankfully for him, as he had no next of kin, there was nobody that the Federation could threaten him with, so they were left to keep asking their useless questions. The only person he did have a connection to was Minhyuk, and thanks to Siri being missing, they had no idea. The only downside to keeping all their information stored in the Siri units for monitoring purposes, was that they had no other place to turn when said Siri unit was thirty years in the past. Not even their recovery beacon had worked at trying to find it.

“What if we used the lie detector on him?” One of the men suddenly asked.

The other rolled his eyes, “It won’t work if he’s not talking,” he responded. “Forget about it,” he said finally, throwing his hands into the air. “If we can’t get the info then let’s just mark him and get this over with, we still haven’t even found this C.H.W guy yet.”

The man was apparently quite fed up, so with those words, he walked out, slamming the door behind him. The other man looked at the door for a moment, before turning back to Hoseok. “Well, that gives me an idea,” he said, stepping forwards. “Have you ever seen anyone with the criminal mark?” he asked Hoseok then.

He thought to himself for a moment, before shaking his head. He had no idea what the guy was talking about.

“That’s because, those who have made themselves enemies of the federation do not get to return to the lives they had before,” he said with a smirk. “Federation criminals are unable to work at any organisation owned by us, live in any accommodation owned by us, or use any services run by us. Why don’t you tell me what that leaves you with?”

Well, that certainly spelt it out quite well. Hoseok had always seen the poor souls huddled in the subway stairwell or sleeping under Main Bridge. The federation funded practically everything, meaning if you were cut off from it all, that basically left you homeless and starving.

It explained how they managed to abolish most of the prisons, but wasn’t much of a favourable alternative when you faced it yourself.

He decided to go along with things and answer the man’s question. “That gives me a whole lot of nothing,” he answered.

The smile he received then was an empty one, “Exactly. Not to mention, the marking process isn’t exactly pleasant, either. Got any tattoos?”

Hoseok was surprised then when the chain on his handcuff suddenly retracted, dragging his wrist with it, until his arm was pulled flat against the table. He decided not to answer that question.

After a moment of silence, the man continued, as he pulled a remote out of his pocket. “The criminal mark is just like a tattoo, only it’s completely permanent, and about ten times more painful.” He grinned then. “Have fun!”

Without another word, he’d pressed a button on his remote, and a laser shot out from the table, straight onto the inside of Hoseok’s wrist. The pain was instant.

He clenched his teeth and pulled hands into fists as the surprise showed on his face, feeling like a needle had been pushed through his arm and out the other side. Having not been prepared for it, he couldn’t help the grunt of pain that passed his lips.

The laser moved agonisingly slowly across his skin, as he clenched his eyes shut, fingernails digging into his palms. It hurt more than anything he’d experienced, feeling the pain shoot through his arm as his free hand gripped the table for support.

“I can make it go faster so that it’ll be over quicker,” the man said then, noticing him struggling. “If you just tell me what you did.”

Hoseok tried to take deep breaths, but another grunt of pain made its way past his lips. “Why does it matter?” he forced out in annoyance, eyes still pressed shut.

“Because,” the man responded, sitting down comfortably across from him. “Those watches are a curse. Man was never meant to tamper with time. As soon as we know everything that you did, we will erase it all. Everything you saw, everyone you met. Their memories of you, and your memories of them. All of it must go so that we can restore order.” 

It made sense. Hoseok knew that his actions had changed the events of the future, that it was dangerous to play with time like he’d done. It might’ve even been good for Mei and Hyunwoo, if they just forgot that he ever existed. Then maybe they could get on with their lives like before, not needing to think or worry about what could have happened to him.

But even so, as the laser sliced through his skin, making him want to shout curses and give in to the deal, he couldn’t stand the thought.

Behind his closed eyes, he could see Mei’s beautiful smile as he’d looked up over the air hockey table. He could see Hyunwoo’s relaxed posture on the floor of the dojo as they chatted the afternoon away. He could see the clear blue skies and remember the fresh clean air and every single memory he had made in the past with his new friends.

He couldn’t do it. Even if it all made sense, he couldn’t give up those memories. If he did, then all of this would be for naught.

“No,” he ground through clenched teeth, forcing back another groan of pain. “You can’t…make me forget them.”

He then heard the scrape of a chair as the man stood up. “Fine, have it your way. Enjoy another few hours of this.”

And with the sound of the door closing behind him, Hoseok dropped his head onto the table.

…

The inside of Hoseok’s apartment faced up much better than the dingy stairwell, if you ignored the brick walls, creaky floor, and steel poles. Mei recognised a lot of it from the videos that Siri had shown her – the desk that had doubled as a work bench when Hoseok and Minhyuk were fixing the watch, the small kitchen over against the far wall, the bed just under the window. Now though, she could see the bookcase, decorated with photos of a teenage Hoseok and a woman smiling brightly. His mother.

She had an arm around him, holding her son tight as he smiled at the camera, his eyes happy little crescents. Mei couldn’t help the sad feeling that engulfed her then.

“We can’t stay for long,” Minhyuk said, grabbing her attention. She turned away from the book case and saw that he’d gathered all the tools on the bench and thrown them into a bag. “Feds will be watching this place.”

Hyunwoo stepped forwards, “What are we going to do?” he asked.

Minhyuk grinned, “I actually have a plan already. I just didn’t think I could pull it off on my own.” He looked between the two new arrivals. “What bloody luck that you two showed up.”

Mei was smiling by the time they were ducking out of Hoseok’s apartment, sneaking through the streets like they were on the run, despite the fact that the feds had no idea who they were.

When they reached Minhyuk’s apartment, Mei was startled when a voice spoke to them.

_“Welcome home, Minhyuk! Have you made some new friends?”_

Her and Hyunwoo spun to see another glowing ball of light above the kitchen bench. “Another Siri?” Nu asked.

Minhyuk nodded, “Yeah, it’s a requirement for everyone to have one so the feds can spy on you. Don’t worry, Hoseok reprogrammed mine, too.”

It was a little bit weird with two Siri’s talking to them and each other, but the trio managed to sit down and talk out their plan. Minhyuk apparently worked in the building that Hoseok was being held at, so getting in was the easy part.

The hard part would be getting out.

…

The laser had stopped, eventually. Hoseok had no idea how long it had gone on for – hours, the man had mentioned – but every second of it had been agony. He wished he had been smarter about this. If only he’d known that bringing the watch into the range of the federation would alert them, he never would have taken it out of his apartment.

Now, he was going to spend the rest of his life on the streets, begging for food and huddling away from the cold. After everything his mother had done to make sure he had a good life… she would be so disappointed.

He’d dropped his head into his free hand as he breathed heavily after the ordeal. His whole arm was aching. He had no idea how much longer he would be sitting here, or what would come next. All he could do was wait.

When the door opened several minutes later, he didn’t want to look up, but still found himself glancing up through his fingers.

His eyes flew wide.

His jaw fell agape.

His hand dropped to the table.

“Hoseok!” Mei’s relieved voice hit his ears as she rushed over to him, and he found himself standing from his chair so fast it almost toppled over behind him. He was still gaping in shock as she threw her arms around him, and his free arm followed suit, holding her tight in a one-armed hug.

He couldn’t manage to get any proper sentences out of his mouth. “I-what-how did-”

Minhyuk had then skidded in behind her, pulling a tool from his belt as he spoke urgently. “There’s no time, let’s go!” In the next second, Min had snapped the chain on his handcuff with a pair of Hoseok’s own wire cutters, and he’d been thrust out the door.

His mind couldn’t even comprehend the fact that Mei was here, let alone the idea that she was executing a full-on escape mission with Minhyuk. He was just about to wonder where Hyunwoo was as they darted down the hall, before he joined them around the corner, holding Siri in his hand.

“The way we came in is blocked,” He announced, leading the way down the hall. “Siri mapped an escape route through the basement, but we only have two minutes before the cameras switch back.”

Hoseok swung his head towards Minhyuk, “You messed with the cameras?!”

“Only the monitors,” Min replied, breathless as they ran. “I had to get Siri to do most of it, I’m not as smart as you.”

Any more conversation was cut off as Nu suddenly announced, “Here!” and shouldered open a door on their left, ushering them through. Mei snatched Siri out of his hand as she darted by, and Minhyuk and Hoseok followed, descending a set of stairs to the lower levels. Hoseok couldn’t hear Siri saying anything, but he did notice that the three of them all had a single wireless headphone in one ear, which she could easily transmit to so that nobody else could overhear.

It was like some sort of well thought out, crazy dream as Mei, Hyunwoo and Minhyuk lead him through thin corridors and down steep stairwells as they followed Siri’s instructions, making their escape. Every turn was calculated, every movement within the group like a well-oiled machine. Hoseok was 100% sure that his friends from the past had never even met Minhyuk, but somehow, they had come together for a common cause and had executed it perfectly.

It was when they reached the bottom level that Mei cursed, throwing Siri into her pocket. “The feds know something’s up,” she said, ducking under pipes, and dodging misplaced poles in the basement. “Apparently there’s been an internal alert announced.”

“We should still have enough time,” Minhyuk responded from behind her. “With the amount of times that alert has gone off unintentionally, a number of officers don’t take it seriously.”

Mei suddenly skidded to a stop, and it took a Minhyuk a considerable amount of effort to not run straight into her. “Good,” she said then, looking at a vent in the wall. “Because I think this will slow down our speed a considerable amount.”

As Hyunwoo and Hoseok stopped behind them, Minhyuk looked at the vent, and then back at Mei. “We’re supposed to fit in there?”

Then, he heard Siri’s voice in his ear, answering his question. _“Yes, I only know Hoseok’s measurements properly, but I think we can safely assume that his shoulders are broader than yours.”_

Minhyuk let out a huff, as he walked over to the vent to pry the grate off, “You didn’t have to rub it in.”

.

By the time the trio were stumbling into Minhyuk’s apartment, sweaty and breathless, Hoseok was still speechless. Overall, it had taken maybe twenty minutes to make their escape, but it had felt like hours. His heart had been pounding with the imminent threat of the feds closing in on them, and most of their time had been spent crawling through the vents, until they’d finally reached the outside, slipping away through the back alley of the building.

He leant against the door, trying to catch his breath, completely gobsmacked at what had just happened. Mei and Hyunwoo were here, thirty years in the future, and they’d just pulled off an amazing escape plan with Minhyuk, a man they’d never even met before.

He then looked up at his three friends, as they all sighed with relief, grinning at him.

“You’re all geniuses.”


	19. The Moment

After Minhyuk had helped free him of the handcuff on his wrist, Hoseok had headed straight for the shower. Having been to Minhyuk’s place many times before, he had no issues making himself at home while he wound down after the ordeal with the federation.

While he showered, Mei, Nu and Minhyuk had a chat about what they were to do next.

“We can’t jump straight back to the past now, can we?” Mei was asking.

Still in her pocket, Siri had then decided to answer for her. _“Unfortunately, not. With our current proximity, they would be alerted as soon as we activated the watch, and they would be able to follow us. We’d need to get a decent distance away from the headquarters before making the jump.”_

“That must be how he got caught,” Minhyuk muttered. When Mei and Nu glanced at him, he elaborated. “He took it to the workshop, wanting to see if he could fix the dates so that you wouldn’t be apart for so long, but he never came home. Being in the centre district, they must’ve picked it up straight away and gone right after him.”

“Geez,” Mei leant her elbows on the bench to rub her eyes. “The future is crazy.”

“What’s the best plan, then?” Nu asked. “Do we wait it out until the heat is off and then make a break for the safe zone?”

Min nodded, “That sounds like the best idea, yeah. Being on the streets right now would be too dangerous, so we can hang out here for a bit. I mean, I don’t have extra beds, but there’s a couch here and a futon in the spare room…”

Nu instantly raised his hand, “Shotgun the couch.”

Mei turned to look at him, and Nu just raised his eyebrows at her.  

So, they moved to set up their sleeping arrangements, comfortable enough with Siri keeping watch for any federation officers nearby. For now, they were just going to relax and try to get some sleep.

When Hoseok stepped out of the bathroom, it was noticeable that Minhyuk’s shirt was too small for him. He received a strangled laugh from his friend when he entered the kitchen, and in return just threw his dirty jeans at the man. It didn’t stop Min from laughing.

He turned serious then, rolling up Hoseok’s jeans in one hand as he walked over. “Man, I missed you.”

Hoseok smiled as they shared a brief hug. “Don’t get mushy on me now, you know that’s my thing.” Minhyuk laughed into his shoulder, and when they pulled back, Hoseok spoke again. “Thank you, though.”

Minhyuk didn’t need to reply. He just nodded happily, patting Hoseok’s shoulder, before letting him go.  

Hoseok then looked around, seeing Hyunwoo getting comfortable on the couch. He turned back to Minhyuk with a questioning look on his face, and Min just nodded over to the spare room. “She’s in there.”

Hoseok gave him one more smile, before walking over towards the couch to give Hyunwoo’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. “How’s the future?” he asked.

“Better than any sci fi movie,” Nu replied, grinning at him.

When Hoseok stepped into the spare, closing the door behind him, he saw Mei struggling to fit the sheets on the futon, and he chuckled.

“I gave up on that three years ago.”

She turned in surprise, having not heard him come in. “Oh, well, I wish I’d known that sooner,” she said with a laugh.

He smiled as he placed his clothes down on the desk. It was covered in all of Minhyuk’s gaming equipment, and he would have loved to show off the amazing technology to Mei, but they had more important things to focus on.

When Hoseok turned back around, Mei climbed off the futon, and he just stared at her. “I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

She smiled proudly as she walked over to him, and he didn’t hesitate to draw her into his arms, finally able to hug her properly now that he wasn’t handcuffed to a table and being rushed out of the room. Her arms had wound around his neck just like the last time they’d been together, reminding him of just how much he’d missed her.

Mei let out a content sigh into his shoulder. “To be honest, I can’t believe it, either.”

Hoseok pulled back enough to look at her, “I’d considered bringing you back with me, you know,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want either of you anywhere near the Federation.” He let out a short laugh, “I guess I should have been a bit smarter, huh?”

Mei chuckled, and he dived into asking the question of the night. “Go on then, enlighten me. How the hell did you get here?”

Mei stepped back, grabbing his hand to tug him over to the futon so they could sit down. “Funny story, actually…” she started. “Have you heard of a man known as C.H.W?”

...

Minhyuk sighed as he stood in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil. It was peacefully silent as Hyunwoo sat over on the couch, scrolling through his phone. It took Min a few seconds of casually gazing at him before he realised something.

“Ah crap, I’m a terrible host!” he suddenly announced.  “Did you want anything to drink?”

Hyunwoo looked up and just shook his head, saying he was fine.

Min raised an eyebrow. “You just ran down eleven flights of stairs, crawled through a vent, and bolted all the way here, and you don’t want anything to drink?”

Hyunwoo thought to himself for a moment, “Well, when you put it that way…”

Shaking his head, Minhyuk turned to grab a glass out of the cupboard to fetch him some water. When he brought it over to him, he noticed that Hyunwoo was on his phone, and raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t have any signal on that,” he pointed out.

“No, I don’t,” Hyunwoo agreed, “I’m just looking through the photos. Want to see a video of Mei kicking Hoseok’s ass?”

Minhyuk’s eyebrows shot up, “Do I ever!”

Hyunwoo shuffled over so that Minhyuk could sit down beside him to watch the videos. He’d never gotten much insight to what happened in the past aside from what Hoseok had told him, so this was a gold mine. Especially when he got to see just how large the skill gap was between Hoseok and the two 4th dan Kendo masters.

Minhyuk’s laugh echoed through to the spare room where Mei and Hoseok sat on the futon. She’d just shown him the watch she’d gotten from C.H.W, and he was staring at it, jaw agape.

“Wow.”

Mei chuckled at his reaction, having finished telling him the story of her meeting with the inventor of the watches.

 “So, this whole thing started just because this guy – whatever he is – was bored?”

The gobsmacked look on his face was so endearing. “Yeah, pretty much,” Mei answered. “Didn’t you wonder why the watch just appeared one day?”

“Of course I did,” he said. “But I had no way of knowing because Siri was adamant on saying she hadn’t detected anything. I guess that all makes sense, now.” He reached out, and Mei handed over the watch for him to have a look at.

“Don’t break it,” she teased.

He shot her a look but couldn’t help smiling. He was glad that she could make light of his mistakes, it was a sign that she wasn’t holding a grudge over it, which relieved him.

“So, this one doesn’t time out like mine did?” he asked. Surely, she would have been forced back to 2018 by now if it did, they must have been here for several hours already.

Mei shook her head, “Nope, he said it has different capabilities. We need to destroy it as soon as we’re done with it.”

Hoseok nodded, handing it back to her. Mei placed it on the table beside her, before turning back to him.

It was in the next moment, that he noticed a shift in the air between them. It was a short moment of silence, as they sat there facing each other, and he could feel the chaos of the last few hours catch up to them.

“I should have asked this earlier,” she murmured then, reaching out to place her hand on top of his. “Are you okay?”

The way that her gaze turned soft, concern clear in her voice about what could have happened, made his heart jump. He glanced down as he turned his hand over, to grasp hers properly. “Yeah,” he murmured in answer, meeting her gaze again. “I’m good.”

She could remember the sight of him the minute she’d burst through the door of the interrogation room. He’d had a hand over his face, sweat on his forehead, and was taking heavy breaths. She had no idea just what the federation did with their criminals, but she needed to know if they’d done anything to him.

She glanced down at their hands, and suddenly noticed something. It was some kind of mark – like a tattoo, just on the inside of his wrist, that definitely had not been there before. It almost looked like the ink was raised on his skin.

She creased her eyebrows as she let go of his hand to brush her thumb over it, “What is-”

He suddenly hissed and pulled his hand back on instinct, holding it to his chest. Mei’s eyes had gone wide, and she apologised as soon as she’d seen the flash of pain pass his features.

“I’m sorry!” she said. “I didn’t mean to-”

“No, no, it’s okay,” he assured, letting go of his arm to show it to her. “It’s just very sore. The feds have a way of marking criminals that’s like a tattoo only…worse.”

Mei’s eyebrows drew together as she glanced back at the mark, and now she could see how red the skin was. “Worse?” she asked, uneasiness pooling in her gut. “Did it hurt a lot?”

He glanced around himself, as if hesitating telling the truth. “A considerable amount, yeah.”

She didn’t look happy about that, but in the next moment she surprised him. In one smooth motion, Mei grabbed his hand and leant to gently press her lips to the inside of his wrist, right beside the criminal mark.

Hoseok could barely comprehend the way his body reacted to such a small gesture, but his heart swelled with happiness.

The smile was evident on his lips as he lifted his other hand to brush across her cheek. “Mei…”

Her smile lit up her features as she gazed back at him, and gently squeezed his hand. Hoseok couldn’t help himself. He lent forwards to close the gap, and instantly found that Mei had moved to meet him half way.

When their lips met, it was like all the tension in him just dissolved. All the stress, all the fear, all the regret, everything just faded away to nothing, so that all that was left on his mind was her.

The feeling of her lips against his, smiling through their kiss. The soft skin of her cheek where his hand rested, before pushing back into her hair. The way she rested her hand on his collarbone, the other still entwined with his.

In those moments, nothing else mattered.

* * *

 

_“Sweetheart, if you don’t watch where you’re going you’re going to fall over,” Taehyun lightly chided as he grabbed his daughters hand to steer her away from the edge of the footpath. The toddler chose to stop walking, staring at something nearby._

_“But Daddy,” she said, “I wanna go on that!”_

_Tae looked to see where Mei was pointing and saw she had been staring at the Ferris Wheel across the street._

_His heart sank. “Oh, honey, I don’t think-”_

_She tugged on his hand, jumping up and down in excitement, “But Daddy! I really want to!”_

_Letting out a sigh, Tae reached his hand into his pocket to pull out his wallet. One glance inside it gave him his answer. “I’m sorry Pumpkin. Daddy doesn’t have enough money for that.”_

_She looked up at him then with wide, sad eyes. “So, we can’t go on it?”_

_Tae knelt in front of his daughter, whom he loved more than anything, and had to look at those sad eyes that looked so much like her mother’s and say, “No, sweetheart. Sometimes we can’t always have what we want.”_

_Mei’s gaze moved from her father, to look back across the street to the Ferris wheel in longing. She could see another family walking over to the ticket booth, two parents and a child a little bigger than her. It made her turn back to Tae and ask her next question._

_“Is it cause we don’t have a Mommy?”_

_Tae’s expression changed, and Mei didn’t understand the odd look that had passed his features for a moment. All she knew was that it wasn’t a smile and she didn’t like it when her Daddy didn’t smile._

_“Kind of,” he responded reluctantly. “But as soon as Daddy gets another job, that won’t be a problem, okay?”_

_She nodded, looking back over at the family. The child was standing between the parents as they waited in line, and they were swinging the girl between them as she held onto both their hands and giggled with delight._

_“Is Daddy happy without a Mommy?” she asked then, turning back to him._

_Taehyun thought about his answer for a few moments, before fixing the ribbon in her hair as he said, “As long as I am with you, I am.”_

_That brought a cute little smile to her face, and Mei turned to look at the family once last time as they walked over to the Ferris wheel. “Will I get to be happy like that one day?” she asked him as Tae stood up again, grabbing her hand to keep walking._

_He didn’t even need to think about his answer. “Of course you will, sweetheart. I promise.” He smiled down as her as they began walking again, and he then made her an offer. “How about we get some ice cream and then go see Aunty Ji?” he suggested._

_Mei’s expression lit up, “And Hunoo?” she asked._

_Tae chuckled at his daughter, “Yes, and Hyunwoo.”_

* * *

The first thing Mei was aware of, was a soft breath at the back of her neck.

She was confused for a moment or so, as she slowly awoke, noticing the pillow wasn’t her usual memory foam, and there was also a weight on her side.

Oh right, she remembered. This wasn’t her bed, nor was it her house, or even her time.

She was thirty years in the future, and Hoseok was currently lying behind her, humming softly as he shifted his legs and tightened his arm around her waist.

She lifted her arm to rest over his and let out a content sigh. She was happy. Just like her Dad had promised all those years ago.

Once Hoseok figured out she was awake, he moved to press a soft kiss to the back of her neck. “Good morning beautiful,” he murmured.

The feather light touch sent a shot of pins and needles down her spine, and his words made her blush. Mei’s only form of response was to bury her face in the pillow.

She could hear Hoseok’s chuckle as he leant over her back to murmur into her ear. “What?” He mused. “You don’t like being called beautiful?”

“No,” her muffled voice replied. “It was just-it was unexpected,” she managed.

His smile was wide as he tugged on her shoulder, “Mei…” He coaxed, “Look at me.”

It took a moment, but eventually, she lifted her head from the pillow and rolled onto her back. He was leaning on his arm, looking down at her with a bright smile. Only a day ago, he’d thought that he would never get to experience this. The feeling of waking up next to her like this, being able to see her messy hair and hear her rough morning voice and share precious little moments like this. It was so…domestic.

He wanted it to last forever, but as soon as he moved to speak, they were interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

“Guys, we’ve gotta go!” Minhyuk’s voice shouted through the door, fast and urgent. “The feds are coming!”

Their eyes flew wide as their heads snapped over to the door, and upon hearing Min’s words, they frantically sat up. There was a split second where Mei and Hoseok just looked at each other. They knew that their little bubble of peace was over, and now they had to dive right back into the fray.

Hoseok couldn’t help but place a quick kiss to her cheek, before he jumped up.

“Let’s go.”


	20. The Chase

Getting out of Minhyuk’s apartment building was a mess. Hoseok was still trying to pull one of his shoes on when they all ran out into the hallway, headed for the elevators. Siri had detected the federation officers en-route to the building and was keeping track of them while they tried to formulate a plan.

_“There are currently five federation officers entering the building via the main foyer, and another four on the street.”_

“Right, how do we get out of here without them catching us?” Hyunwoo asked as they reached the elevators.

Knowing the area best, Minhyuk was thinking to himself. “The basement,” he suddenly said. “Siri, are they in the basement?”

 _“No,”_ she answered. _“They are on the street, blocking the exit from the basement, however they are not entering.”_

Minhyuk punched the button for the elevator, and to their luck it was only a few floors away. “If we go straight to the basement we can duck into the carpark of the neighbouring building without going out onto the street. It’s not the best idea but it’s the only thing I can think of.”

As they all piled into the elevator, Hyunwoo murmured, “Let’s hope they don’t decide to go in.”

The lift was silent as the four of them stood, watching the levels go by. It was tense, knowing their chances of being able to get out of the building were low, but it was still possible. If only the feds hadn’t decided to come so damn early, they may have had a better plan.

Somewhere between floors ten and nine though, the lift made an abrupt sound, all the lights turning off as it came to a halt.

“What’s happening?” Mei asked.

Hoseok and Minhyuk looked at each other in dread.

“They’ve shut off the elevators,” Minhyuk answered. “Damn it, I should’ve known they’d do that!”

“What do we do?” Hyunwoo asked, looking for some sort of emergency door button, but pressing it did nothing.

“We’re not just going to sit here and wait for them to catch us,” Hoseok said defiantly, moving to the doors. “Nu, help me pull these open.”

Mei stepped back to let him past, and her and Minhyuk watched as they each grabbed one of the doors and started to pull. Part of her was sure that the doors wouldn’t budge, but then she was watching as the sleeves of Hoseok’s shirt pulled tight around his biceps, and suddenly the doors were moving.

Mei and Minhyuk were cheering with delight as the doors slowly gave way with Hoseok and Hyunwoo’s grunts of fury. It was open but not quite enough for anyone to fit through.

“Come on, you bastard,” Hoseok grunted as he pushed, and the pair turned so that their backs were pressed together as they pushed the doors further. When the gap was just big enough to fit through, they sighed in triumph.

The lift wasn’t at the tenth level, but they could see the landing about three quarters of the way up through the doors.

Without a second thought, Hoseok grabbed onto the landing and muscled his way up, squeezing through the opening with ease. He then turned, holding his hand out to Mei.

Before she could even voice her concern on being able to get up, Hyunwoo had knelt on the ground, ready to give her a boost. She gave him a grateful smile as she jumped up via the knee he’d offered her, and then Hoseok had grabbed onto her and pulled her through the opening.

Minhyuk was next, using the same method, and Mei looked up and down the hallway as he clambered to his feet, and then Hyunwoo pulled himself up behind them.

“What now?” she asked. “Surely we can’t take the stairs.”

Minhyuk was shaking his head, “Feds are coming up the stairs.”

“There has to be another way to get out of here,” Hoseok said, and Hyunwoo just started walking down the hallway, his eyes set on the window at the end.

“Siri,” Mei said as she followed, “Where are the feds?” 

_“Five officers are ascending the stairwell, passing the sixth floor now.”_

Minhyuk cursed, “We’re running out of time.”

Hyunwoo had then started running towards the window, having spotted something outside. “What’s that?” he asked.

Minhyuk’s eyes lit up the moment he saw it, “A window washer!”

Taking that as a good sign, Hyunwoo took the initiative, grabbing one of the chairs in the hallway and shouting a warning for the others to stay back. Mei skidded to a stop behind him as he swung it out and smashed the window.

Glass scattered across the carpet as a loud siren suddenly erupt from the building, making Mei jump in surprise.

“That’s our queue to leave!” Minhyuk said as he ran forwards, and jumped onto the platform outside. It wasn’t very large, an automated machine that went up and down the buildings, though the platform was there for the instances that it did need to be manned.

Hyunwoo jumped down onto it after Minhyuk, and Mei and Hoseok followed, stopping at the edge.

Hoseok took one look at the ten story drop and then grabbed hold of the wall, letting out an uneasy breath. “You’re joking.”

Mei grabbed onto his hand in a firm, reassuring grip, as Minhyuk then glanced up at him, noticing the uncomfortable look on his face.

“Shit, he’s scared of heights,” he remembered suddenly, shuffling over to hold his hand out. “Come on Hoseok, we’ll be on the ground before you know it.”

Mei could see the internal battle it took for him to grab onto Minhyuk’s shoulder and step down onto the platform, Mei’s hand still tight in his grasp. “Yeah, I just want to be in one piece when that happens,” he responded.

As soon as Mei jumped down behind him, Hyunwoo was at the controls, having figured out which was the down button. The platform jolted, and Hoseok dropped to a crouch, steadying himself on the floor. Mei squeezed his hand, and then they were moving, down and down towards the ground. She then noticed that he’d grabbed onto Minhyuk’s ankle with his free hand, and Min had placed a steady hand on his shoulder as he watched Hyunwoo at the controls.

When they reached the ground, it was in the alley beside the building, surrounded by high fences as the stench from the garbage wafted around them.

“Great, now where do we go?” Minhyuk sighed in annoyance. Mei noticed a door that must have lead to the basement, and ran over to open it, but it was locked. Hyunwoo then took off around the corner, trying to find another exit, as Hoseok and Minhyuk followed.

Mei looked at the door in scorn, before moving to follow them. Just as she reached the corner though, she heard a voice from behind her.

“Mei!”

Skidding to a stop, Mei flung her head around, but didn’t see anybody. What she did see though, was the door to the basement sitting wide open. Her eyes flew wide, and she darted over, poking her head through the door. Somebody in a hooded jacket was trying to scurry away.

“Hey!” Mei called out to them, “Hey, wait!”

The person stopped, knowing they’d been caught. Mei glanced behind her, able to hear the guy’s voices around the corner. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Nobody important,” they answered, and it sounded like a woman.

“That’s bull,” Mei answered. She didn’t want to trust anyone. “Why are you helping me? How do you know my name?”

_Could she be in league with the C.H.W guy? Was that what this was?_

The woman chuckled to herself. “I should’ve known…”

Mei was starting to get impatient, but her jaw dropped the second the woman pulled back her hood.

She had dark hair, with a couple small streaks of grey appearing, and dark eyes, that looked just like her mother’s.

But it wasn’t her mother.

“Oh my god,” Mei almost took a step back in surprise, now staring at a mirror image of herself that had aged thirty years. “You’re really-I mean I’m-”

Older Mei just laughed at her, the wrinkles around her eyes creasing. “You really didn’t think you’d live to be this old?”

Mei was still in shock. “I mean – I did – I just – didn’t expect to actually see…” she wasn’t sure whether to finish the sentence with ‘you’ or ‘me’ so just let it hang.

Older Mei was looking at her with amusement. “Well, you have, because I’m helping your ass, now go get the guys before the feds are on you.”

Mei was still recovering from the surprise as her older self turned to dart away, but she had one more question to ask. “Wait!” The older woman turned to look over her shoulder, remembering how this conversation went for her thirty years ago.

“Is this…I mean, do we…Hoseok and I…is this all worth it?” She finally managed to blurt out.

Older Mei smiled at her warmly, offering only a single sentence in answer. “Why do you think I’m helping you?”

As the woman turned to duck away, Mei found herself smiling, hearing Hoseok and Hyunwoo calling her name around the corner. The siren was still blaring from the building, and she realised they needed to move quickly.

“Guys!” She called out, “The door is open!”

Down at the other end of the basement, the older woman walked straight out and onto the street, the federation officers paying her no attention at all. She then saw the car waiting for her by the road and slipped inside.

Starting the ignition, her husband smiled at her. “All go smoothly?” he asked. He had quite a few more streaks of grey in his hair than she did, but she still thought he was just as beautiful as he was thirty years ago.

“Yeah,” she said, reaching out to grab his hand. “The rest is history. Let’s go home.”

* * *

“Quick, this way!” Minhyuk instructed as they scrambled through the car park of the neighbouring building. The feds on the street were moving now, having been alerted to their escape via the window washer, and Mei’s heart was in her throat. She could see their destination up ahead, a walkway with a sign pointing down to the subway.

 _“The federation officers are now in this car park,”_ Siri informed them, and Hoseok looked over his shoulder and cursed. There were voices behind them, shouting instructions that echoed off the walls.

They all but launched themselves into the walkway to the subway station, weaving through morning commuters as the feds tore up the pathway behind them.

Minhyuk was thankful for his early morning starts as they scrambled down the stairwell to the platform, sure that there should be a train arriving that was headed away from the centre district any second now.

He could hear the smooth whizz of the new carriages as they entered the station, and he gave one more shout over his shoulder, before he bolted straight for the doors.

“There it is, let’s go!”

Hyunwoo watched Minhyuk dart like a madman for the train, bumping into people as he pushed past, and Nu tried to follow the same path, apologising as he went. Mei hit the bottom of the stairs and saw Minhyuk ducking into the carriage, and when she took off to try and keep up, she ran into a commuter in a hurry.

He was holding a fresh, very hot coffee in his hands as he scurried through the people, and when Mei ran into his shoulder, she was halted as it spilled all over her arm.

She hissed at the sensation, apologising profusely at the man who now also had coffee on his shirt, and in the next moment Hoseok had darted past and grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her forwards.

“Come on, come on!” he urged as the bell rang, and the train speakers alerted patrons to stay away from the closing doors.

Mei and Hoseok scrambled over, ignoring the shouts from the staff as they slipped through the doors just as they began to close. The people around them gave them strange looks as they leant against the doors, puffing and relieved. Mei then looked around, spotting Minhyuk and Hyunwoo standing by the other set of doors. They quickly shuffled over to stand beside them, taking a moment to breathe.

“We’re not out of the clear, yet,” Minhyuk muttered quietly, holding onto the handrail above him as the train whizzed through the tunnel. “We have two stations before we’re out of the centre district.”

“And then we need to find somewhere to warp,” Hyunwoo added, ducking his head so his words didn’t reach anyone outside their little huddle.

The train stopped at the next station, and they needed to shuffle over so that more people could step on. Hoseok had one hand grasping the pole beside him, and he reached the other around Mei, pulling her closer to him as the people brushed past her.

Minhyuk then rose an eyebrow at him. “Protective much?”

Hoseok just glanced away, trying to hide a smile. “Shut up.” Hyunwoo didn’t bother hiding his chuckle.

It reminded Hoseok of Mei’s collision with the commuter though, and he craned his neck, trying to get a good look at her arm. “Are you okay?” he asked her. He could see the redness from the coffee spill, it must have been fresh. 

“Yeah,” she said, giving him a reassuring smile. “Just stings a little.”

His heart was still pounding from their scramble, but that smile relaxed him a little, which he was grateful for. He turned to press a quick kiss to her temple, and as he did so, he glanced down the carriage.

He could see two suited figures moving through the adjacent carriage, the federation patches making his stomach lurch. “Guys, we’ve gotta move,” he muttered urgently, giving Minhyuk’s shoulder a shove.

“What?” he asked incredulously, “Why?”

“They’re on the train,” he pressed, and when Hyunwoo saw them, he grabbed Minhyuk’s arm to drag him down the carriage as Hoseok repeated, “Move!”

They received odd looks and unhappy huffs as they suddenly took off down the carriage, trying to manoeuvre through all the people as fast as they could.

As they made it into the next carriage, Hoseok glanced over his shoulder to see the feds on their tail, each of them pulling something out of their belt.

His stomach dropped, and he cursed loudly. “They’ve got immobilizers!” he warned, and Mei glanced back, not sure what he was talking about. As they jumped into the next carriage, he quickly explained, “They’re like guns but instead of hurting you it stuns you, so you can’t move.”

“A.K.A if we get hit we’re screwed,” Minhyuk yelled over his shoulder, jumping over someone’s bag as another person told him to watch where he was going. “Surely they won’t use them with so many civilians around.”

“I don’t want to hang around to find out,” Hyunwoo said. “But we’re almost out of carriages.”

“The station!” Hoseok pointed ahead, seeing the lights of the platform. They scrambled through the people, hearing curses and outrage, and when they reached the last door of the last carriage, Minhyuk smashed his hand on the door open button furiously.

Hoseok glanced back to see the feds taking aim, and he panicked, grabbing somebody’s bag from the seat beside him and throwing it in their direction.

Finally, the doors opened, and they exploded out onto the platform, hearing the shouts from the feds behind them.

“Where do we go? Where do we go?” Mei was repeating as she weaved through the people, and Hoseok pushed past, taking the lead as he saw something up ahead.

“The elevator!” he shouted over his shoulder, and Hyunwoo nodded, as Minhyuk scrambled along behind him.

A person had just stepped out of the lift, and Hoseok was determined to make it there before the doors closed. They couldn’t afford to wait. They had to get away from the feds, now.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered as he split groups of people in half as he charged through. He got all the way to the doors, just as they’d started to close, and he grabbed onto them, holding them there as Mei and Hyunwoo darted in behind him.

Just as Minhyuk reached the doors, Hoseok glanced up, and saw the feds only metres behind them, immobilizers raised to aim.

“Min!”

He heard the click of the gun, and Minhyuk shouted in shock, stumbling through the doors as they closed behind him. His knees buckled, and both Hoseok and Hyunwoo jumped to catch him.

“I can’t feel my legs,” he rasped in a panic, the hands grasping Hyunwoo’s arm slowly going limp.

“It’s okay,” Hoseok reassured as he gave Minhyuk’s weight to Hyunwoo. “It’s only temporary.” He then spun around, “Mei?”

“I’m on it!” She said, the watch in her hand as the lift moved up to the next level. She took hold of Minhyuk’s arm, “Everybody grab on!”

 

The world shifted, the walls of the lift spinning into nothingness as their stomachs lurched and their feet lost the ground.

When everything came back to them, Mei recognised the familiar walls of the dojo’s training room as everything stopped spinning, and their little huddle stumbled. She’d lost her footing quite easily, dropping to one knee this time instead of completely falling over, while poor Hyunwoo, not wanting to drop Minhyuk, had let himself fall into the wall.

Hoseok still had an arm around Mei’s waist as he helped pull her to her feet. “No matter how many times I do that, I will never get used to it.”

“Says the only one still standing,” Minhyuk huffed as Hyunwoo tried to right himself. “Sorry,” he murmured then to the man, “You can put me down.”

As Nu gently placed Minhyuk on the wood floor, Mei and Hoseok looked at each other, breathing sighs of relief. Mei looked down at the watch as she dropped her head onto his collarbone, and Hoseok wrapped his arms around her gratefully.

“We made it,” Mei sighed in relief. “Let’s hurry up and break this thing.”

Hoseok took the watch from her as she leant her weight into him in exhaustion. He glanced at Hyunwoo, “Would you do the honours?”

Nu grinned, “With pleasure,” he said, walking over to the wall, and grabbing a bokken. He held it up like a baseball bat, and when Hoseok threw it to him, Minhyuk was delighted to see the watch get smashed across the room into several, unidentifiable pieces.


	21. Their Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where I say I am so so so so so so so so so so so SO sorry for taking so long to write this damn thing. It was supposed to be the last chapter but then the last chapter turned into two chapters and it was a mess.
> 
> Anyway, take it and read it. I hope you like it~~

Juggling a handful of grocery bags, Mei pushed the front door open with her shoulder, and stumbled into the apartment. It had been a few days since their adventure to 2048, and since then, her and Nu had been reshuffling their home to accommodate their new permanent guests.

 

One of them was in the corner of the living room now, sitting on his mattress and obviously having just woken up.

 

Mei looked at the time, noting that it was mid-afternoon, and chuckled to herself. “Did you and Nu stay up til a ridiculous hour of the morning again?” she asked him.

 

Minhyuk rubbed his eyes, mumbling a response as he stood up. “Maybe.” When his gaze focused on her, he noticed all the bags she had, and sluggishly walked over to give her a hand. 

 

As he took a few from her, she remarked, “How can you sleep with the sun coming through the window?”

 

Minhyuk grinned as he walked to the kitchen with her, dumping the bags on the bench. “I told you I can sleep anywhere,” he responded with a grin.

 

Mei looked back over to his designated corner and frowned. Hyunwoo had managed to steal a spare mattress from his mother’s house, and they’d snagged a fold out divider from the markets, but it wasn’t much compared to having your own room with a proper bed. At least Hoseok was able to just share with her, though he did steal all the blankets.

 

“Well I do have good news,” she said then, as she started unpacking the groceries. When Minhyuk looked up expectantly, she continued. “I got you a job!”

 

His eyes flew wide, “Really?!”

 

Mei grinned, “Yep! One of the waiters just quit so I asked my boss. You have a trial shift in two days.”

That made him so excited that he jumped to hug her, “Thank you!”

 

Mei chuckled at his enthusiasm, and when he pulled back, she said, “It’s only a coffee shop, nothing great.”

 

“Are you kidding me?” Minhyuk replied, “My last job was sorting through archives. This is miles better.”

Mei smiled as she continued to unpack the groceries, and then they heard the front door opening. If Minhyuk had only just woken up, that meant that Nu would still be asleep, meaning it could only be one person.

 

She turned and smiled as Hoseok waltzed in, carrying a duffle bag in one hand and a small towel in the other. He had a sleeveless shirt on and was notably sweaty, but still walked straight over to her.

 

“Afternoon,” he said happily, giving her a quick kiss. He then glanced at Minhyuk, noticing that he was still in the pyjamas that Hyunwoo had given him. “Morning?”

 

Minhyuk shrugged, before lighting up, “I got a job!”

 

“Really?”

 

“Not quite,” Mei added. “He has a trial shift at the café. So long as he doesn’t piss anybody off, he’ll have a job.”

 

“I have a job!” Minhyuk repeated.

 

Hoseok chuckled at him, as Mei asked him, “How’s the gym?”

 

“A little old-fashioned,” he answered, earning a punch in the arm from Mei. He’d constantly been making jokes about everything here being old. “No, it’s good.”

 

Apparently Hyunwoo had shuffled out from his room without them noticing, because now he walked into the kitchen, searching for coffee. “How did you get that job?” he mumbled in question.

 

“He just walked in and they said, ‘you’re hired!’” Minhyuk joked, poking Hoseok’s bicep.

 

He chuckled, holding the spot Minhyuk had prodded. “No, I did the same thing everyone does in this time. It’s only administrative stuff, but it does mean I get to train there for free.”

 

“Thank god for Siri or it would have been impossible to prove you exist,” Hyunwoo commented.

 

“Speaking of training,” Mei cut in then with a cheeky look, “You stink.”

 

“Wow,” Hoseok responded sarcastically, “Thank you.”

 

She poked him in the chest for good measure, “Go shower.”

 

Instead of doing as she asked though, he grinned and lifted his armpit towards her. Minhyuk and Hyunwoo watched in amusement as Mei made a noise of complaint and shoved at him, repeating her demand.

 

He was laughing as he turned to walk down the hallway, grabbing Mei by the waist, and dragging her with him. Minhyuk waved as she glanced back at them in desperation, before they disappeared around the corner.

 

Having successfully finished his endeavour for coffee, Hyunwoo opened the fridge, searching for the milk. “How’s the mattress?” he asked.

 

Minhyuk shrugged, jumping onto one of the stools on the other side of the bench. “It does the job, a bed is a bed.”

 

Procuring the milk, Hyunwoo glanced at Minhyuk’s corner and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think that could be considered a bed.”

 

“I’ve seen worse.”

 

Hyunwoo shook his head, turning to the fridge to look at the calendar. “Hey Mei?” he called out.

“Yeah?” she asked, her voice echoing down the hallway as Hoseok shuffled through a small pile of borrowed clothes on the bedroom floor.

 

Hyunwoo walked over to the hallway, poking his head around the corner. “When does our lease expire?”

Mei appeared at her bedroom door, thinking to herself. “Next month, I think? The renewal came in yesterday.”

 

Hyunwoo glanced behind himself back to Minhyuk, who was trying to inconspicuously steal a sip of his coffee. “I think we may need to upgrade,” he suggested.

 

Mei stepped to the side as Hoseok squeezed through the door, headed for the shower. She watched him as he went, hands bundled with clean clothes and a towel thrown over his shoulder. “I think so, too.”

 

.

 

Trying to fit two people from the future into a time where they didn’t exist yet did prove to be a little bit of a struggle at first.

 

Hoseok at least was used to visiting, so wasn’t so surprised with small differences in technology, and if he ever got confused, was good at hiding it. Minhyuk on the other hand…was a different story.

 

The funniest encounter was possibly their first proper trip to the shopping centre. For the first week, Hoseok and Minhyuk had been borrowing Hyunwoo’s clothes, so they decided for their new family to go on a little trip to buy the boys their own stuff.

 

Not only did Minhyuk try to walk out of a store without paying – to which Mei had to explain that no, she couldn’t just wave her card at the door – but he also tried to pick a fight with a vending machine.

 

It wasn’t something any of them thought he’d have a problem with. They’d just stopped to take a break while Hyunwoo checked his bank account and Mei had given Minhyuk her card to go and get a snack. A minute later, Hyunwoo had announced he was also hungry, so disappeared around the corner after him.

 

When Mei and Hoseok eventually wandered around the corner, wondering why they were taking so long, they were met with the sight of Minhyuk sulking as he used the screen to pick what he wanted, and Hyunwoo laughing hysterically, leaning against the side of the machine.

 

“What on earth are you two doing?” Mei asked, folding her arms.

 

Still laughing, Nu held onto his stomach, his eyes small little crescents. “He-he was trying to talk to it and getting angry that it didn’t answer!”

 

Minhyuk did not look happy as he hastily took the snack from the machine, “How was I supposed to know it didn’t have voice recognition?!”

 

Hoseok burst into chuckles, covering his mouth, as Mei shared a humorous look with Hyunwoo.

 

The rest of their trip wasn’t nearly as amusing, but they did have their moments. What Mei enjoyed the most though, was just how…normal it felt.

 

For the last several weeks she’d been so worried about that damn watch and the man who was using it, but now she didn’t need to worry anymore. Hoseok was walking beside her the whole time, his hand comfortably encasing hers, and he wasn’t going to leave this time.

 

As they wandered from store to store, he’d try on jeans and jackets and shirts and jumpers, and look to her expectantly for her input. The way his eyebrows drew together when he was unsure was endearing, and she would just nod and smile and say that it looked great, because they all did. He would then look at the price tag and become worried about her spending so much money on him, and she would walk over, cover the tag, and tell him to forget about it, before giving him a kiss on the cheek happily.

 

She wasn’t going to let him walk around in nothing, and poor Hyunwoo needed his wardrobe back, so she was paying for Hoseok’s clothes, and Hyunwoo was putting in for Minhyuk. If they didn’t like it, they could always pay them back later when they had their own money.

 

At the end of the day, Hoseok and Minhyuk had just enough clothes to hold their own, and as they walked out of the centre and towards the train station, it didn’t take very long for Minhyuk to ask when he could join in on the Kendo lessons.

 

“Hm, I dunno,” Hoseok said, pretending to think to himself. “These guys have a pretty crazy initiation, I’m not sure you’d pass.”

 

Minhyuk raised an eyebrow, “Initiation? You’re joking, right?” he then turned to Mei, “Tell me he’s joking.”

 

Mei and Hyunwoo glanced at each other.

 

“Sorry buddy, we can’t disclose anything to non club members,” Nu answered with an incredibly straight face. “You’ll have to find out on Tuesday. I mean…if you’re still willing.”

 

It was a fun little inside joke between the three until Tuesday came around. Hyunwoo had just finished his class with the kids and was sweeping the training room when Hoseok showed up, still wearing his work shirt. He’d walked into the training room like he was coming home after a long break.

 

He stopped in the middle of the wooden floor, glancing around. “Man, I missed this place.”

 

Nu raised a cheeky eyebrow at him, “You were here last week.”

 

“Yes, but that was just after we’d ran for our god damn lives,” he threw back. “Is my uniform still here?”

 

Hyunwoo nodded, “Yeah, Mei washed it for you.”

 

Hoseok smiled happily as he padded off to the locker room, and soon enough, Mei and Minhyuk were stumbling on in after a full-on shift at the café. Apparently, Minhyuk had spilled a few drinks and accidentally given somebody the wrong change, but overall hadn’t done any major damage and would be getting a proper roster in a few days. He was quite excited about it.

 

When he eventually had gotten changed into the new uniform that Mei had so conveniently provided him from their spares, he looked between the three of them expectantly. “So?” he asked. “What now?”

 

Hoseok looked at Nu. Nu looked at Mei. Mei looked back to Hoseok.

 

“Now,” Hoseok said, turning back to Minhyuk as he thought on the spot. He grinned as he thought of something. “Now, you have the spar Mei for ten seconds without falling on your ass.” 

 

Minhyuk looked from him over to Mei as Hyunwoo handed him a Shinai. He shrugged as he stepped forwards, “Alright, I guess ten seconds doesn’t sound so ba-”

 

Before he’d even finished his sentence, Mei had darted forwards, gracefully delivering a blow to land Minhyuk on the floor in a matter of seconds.

 

The air had been knocked out of him, as he let out a surprised grunt and was left lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling in shock.

 

Mei grinned as she brought her shinai back by her side, “First rule: don’t get cocky.”

 

Both Hoseok and Hyunwoo were in a fit of laughter as Minhyuk lay on the floor, too surprised to move. He managed a single word of response. “Noted.”

 

Mei laughed as she held out a hand to help him up, and when Minhyuk was on his feet again, he looked around at all three of them who were still chuckling.

 

“There’s no initiation, Min,” Hoseok managed, giving him a pat on the shoulder as he walked over to grab his own Shinai. “We’re just messing with you.”

Minhyuk decided to pout as he watched Mei and Hoseok move over to their own side of the training room as Hyunwoo picked up a bokken.

 

“Ready to actually start learning now?” Nu asked with a cheeky smile.

 

He rolled his eyes in good humour. “I guess.”

 

As Hyunwoo dived into the beginner lesson for Minhyuk, Mei and Hoseok squared off a few paces away.

 

“You missed a lot of training,” Mei pointed out, holding her shinai out so that it tapped him on the shoulder. “Are you sure you even remember anything Nu and I taught you?”

 

He had the audacity to look offended. “Of course I do.”

 

Mei grinned, “Alright, prove it then.”

 

While Hyunwoo was explaining the basic words used in Kendo like kata and bokken, Minhyuk’s eyes wandered to the couple as they launched into sparring. He remembered Hoseok telling him about how good Mei was at Kendo, and how hard it was to go up against her.

 

To his credit, he didn’t do too bad. He knew the basics and was able to execute some moves quite well. In the end though, he was still only a rokkyu against a fourth dan, and ultimately, ended up on the ground.

 

Mei was chuckling as he dropped his head against the wooden floor. Instead of getting up straight away though, he gave her a peculiar look, remembering something from the day he’d first kissed her.

 

They’d been standing in the locker room, as his mind had short circuited and started spilling compliments.

 

“I love that little laugh you make when you knock me over,” he murmured, looking up at her fondly.

 

It had taken her a moment, but Mei seemed to remember, also, as a smile broke out onto her face. She stepped forwards, offering him a hand as she replied. “I love that determined grin of yours when you get back up.”

 

His smile was bright and cheeky as he moved to take her hand, but in the next moment he did something completely unexpected. Instead of getting to his feet, he pulled her down.

 

She’d made a surprised sound as he yanked on her arm, and she stumbled forwards, landing on top of him. Hoseok was chuckling happily as she grumbled, pushing herself up with a hand against his chest.

 

Mei lifted a hand to firmly poke him, “You little-” but before she could, he’d grabbed her wrist.

 

A matter of moments later, it had turned into an all-out war.

 

Minhyuk was completely distracted as he watched the couple wrestle on the floor, trying to one-up the other with head locks and pinches. There were small screeches of surprise and little giggles along with the thumping of limbs on the floor.

 

“You’ll pay for that!”

 

“Ah! Wait, wait!”

 

Hyunwoo turned around to fix a glare in their direction. “Really?”

 

He wasn’t graced with a response, just a squawk from Mei as Hoseok pinched her side, chuckling like a little kid with that gummy smile on his face. Mei was giggling with delight as she got the upper hand by prodding the back of his neck, making him let go of her for long enough to hook an arm around his neck.

 

She was distracted then when Hyunwoo’s voice caught her attention as he said, “Don’t make me come over there.”

 

She turned to look at her friend, giving him an innocent smile, “He started it!”

 

That moment was then the perfect opportunity for Hoseok to sneak past her defences and start tickling her sides. Mei screeched in protest, trying to wriggle away as she laughed hysterically, but he wasn’t letting go. Hoseok had her.

 

“Ah, Okay! You win! You win!” she exclaimed, trying to save herself against her best interest. Hoseok cheered in triumph, letting her go with a wide grin as he sat back on his heels.

 

Turning to their two spectators, he flashed them a cheeky smile. “And that,” he announced, “Is how you beat Mei at kendo.”

 

They were laughing as Mei grumbled, sitting up. “You’re a bastard.”

 

.

 

“You’re a genius!”

 

Hoseok turned to Mei with a cheeky smile as the four of them stepped up onto the foot path. “I thought I was a bastard?”

 

Pushing open the door to Tsuyaki’s, Mei shrugged. “I suppose having an idea like this makes up for it.”

 

It had been at the end of their actual training that he had suggested it. Being the avid ramen lover he was, and the desire to be out of their small apartment for longer, he’d brought up the idea of them all going out for dinner.

 

It was like their own little celebration. For getting out of that time travelling mess all in one piece, for Minhyuk and Hoseok getting their own jobs, and just for the four of them to be able to relax and banter over steaming bowls of some delicious food.

 

They sat at a table by the window as they slurped and chatted, the sun slowly setting in the west and casting a warm glow through the glass.

 

“You should have seen Min’s face when he saw the register today at work,” Mei chuckled. “He thought he was in the stone ages having to count the money himself!”

 

“Wait,” Hoseok put his bowl down as Hyunwoo chuckled. “So, it doesn’t sort and count the money for you?”

 

Mei turned to him, reaching out to pat the back of his hand, “No, sweetie.”

 

He raised an eyebrow, “Are you being condescending to me?”

 

She just grinned, “No, why would I do that?”

 

They shared a look for a few moments, before their stare off concluded and they went back to eating with cheeky little smiles on their faces.

 

“Ooh,” Hyunwoo caught their attention as he picked up his phone, “There’s a three-bedroom apartment a few streets away up for rent. Not a lot more than what we’re paying now.”

 

This caught Mei’s interest, as she leaned forwards. “Is there an inspection soon?”

 

“Yep,” Hyunwoo passed the phone over to her, “This Saturday.”

 

Grabbing the phone, Mei and Hoseok looked at the screen, scrolling through the photos as Minhyuk whined from his spot that he couldn’t see.

 

“Ooh, I really like it,” Mei murmured, holding the phone between them. “Let’s go have a look.”

 

“Done,” Hyunwoo answered as they passed the phone back. “We’ll check it out on Saturday.”

 

Mei was about to go back to her food, but Hoseok leant over to rest his chin on her shoulder. She turned her head, looking at him with a smile.  “What is it?”

 

“Nothing,” he smiled back. “I’m just happy.”

 

It made her feel warm, and she grabbed his hand to give it a squeeze, before giving him a kiss.

 

“Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pssst, there's still more. The epilogue will be along when my brain kicks into gear again


End file.
